I have been told that a lot of my complaints were addressed through the dlc. Sadly I did not play it, but if it does elaborate well on the villains then it really should have been in the main game.
It absolutely should have been in the main game. It made a world of difference when rewatching the story cutscenes after playing through Torna. I know it's hard finding time with so many games coming out, but the Torna DLC is really beautiful and required playing.
See 2 dlc's isn't just a cut out content typa thing it was always meant to be in the main game but if you would do some research on the development history on the game you'd see how it didn't happen. Xbc2 was a rushed switch release title so that's why the game being rushed in some areas is really apparent.
I agree with most of your praise, especially regarding Almalthus, I 100% disagree with a lot of your complaints. Especially regarding Jin, who is one of my favorite villains of all time, even before the DLC expansion (which is massive and adds a lot to his character, considering him and Lora are the main protagonists of that). Original intention of the expansion was that it would be inbetween chapter 7 and chapter 8 of the main game, but they ran out of time in the final year of development and decided to make it part of the expansion pass instead. They also made it a standalone release as well because it's 10-30 hours long. Also, I think you have a misunderstanding of Rex's character, because while initially presented as a bumbling protagonist who is naive, and to a point he certainly is, and is definitely awful with words and understanding feelings intuitively ("dense" protagonist trope). His twist on that archetype is that he actually is worldly and experienced. He does full time contracting. He's traveled to many places in the Cloud Sea. He left his village/orphan family not at the start of his adventure, but several years ago. He rarely simply rebutts villains philosophy/speeches, but instead tries to understand them and how they got that way. He is not quick to jump to conclusions (like many hot blooded protagonists of his archetype) but instead is very empathetic and considerate. He is a subversion of his typical archetype, and the specific dialogue of his that you quoted is still trying to interpret him as the standard of the archetype instead of as the subversion of it that he actually is. As for the Xenoblade 3 picture, He's a chad, he's earned it, based optimism wins again.The tone of that criticism is only one step away from an incel talking point: Instead of complaining "oh, you have a significant other, that makes you disqualified to understand my plight" it is "oh, you have multiple significant others, that makes you disqualified to understand their plights". Normally your videos stick to logical and rational talking points, but I think this was an instance where you might have let something a bit more vulnerable slip out to be seen. Anyway, keep up the good work with your videos. I highly encourage Torna expansion if you want the exact things you are complaining about to be elaborated upon and addressed (Almalthus will still get the most compelling stuff for you, I think). I also recommend that if you ever replay or rewatch cutscenes of base game 2, that you try reading Rex's character outside the confines of the archetype he seemingly represents at first, but I strongly believe that he isn't the archetype played straight, but a subversion, and that your understanding and appreciation of his character will deepen by reading him beyond the surface level archetype he represents.
It's important to know that the original plan for the story was to put the Torna prequel expansion after chapter 7 of the main game. When they decided to have DLC they basically took the Torna scenario and expanded it to fill the 20-30 hour runtime. It is unfortunate that they did it this way for reasons like this video, where many people don't end up getting the whole intended story even though they finished the main game.
That had to do with the fact that they ended up with a bunch of ideas and new technology that they wanted to try. The visual performance of Torna is significantly better than the main game, and the changes to the combat is incredible. This resulted in Xenoblade 3 being as incredible as it is.
I personally found Jin to be the best of the three villains. True, the whole thing of "my gf died so now I'll destroy the world" is dumb, but to me, that was just the catalyst. His real hatred for man came from watching his blades be subjugated for hundreds of years by the church, and any attempt at peaceful coexistence was snuffed out by amalthous. That, combined with ancient knowledge about how the architects home was destroyed by war, and him discovering the diary where he learns about wars in the past, is what actually drives him to be the villain he is. The death of his loved one breaks him and makes him susceptible to malos' words, but it's not his sole motivation.
I’m gonna have to stop you there. Jin is the best written character in the game. And that’s excluding Torna. The thing is, Lora doesn’t need to be elaborated on as a character. She represents the ideal of a driver, at least in base game. Both Jin and Malos represent a problem with the driver/blade system. Malos is the copying of the first driver’s desires, and Jin is the loss of a blade’s memories. Jin became immortal so that Lora would never be forgotten. He keeps her in an ice crystal on the Marsanes. And he wandered 500 years completely alone. By staying isolated, Jin only saw the worst of Alrest; the persecution, the corruption, and most importantly, Amalthus’s rise to power. The closest thing he had to a sister was brainwashed, and made the emblem of Indol. And he can’t do anything. He’s still just one person, one who’s powers are extremely limited in comparison to all of Alrest, and even then, killing Amalthus fixes nothing in his eyes. So when Malos gives him an opportunity, he takes it without hesitation. On top of that, Jin wants to die. But he owed it to Lora to stay alive for her. Meanwhile, Nia and Rex both serve as counters to his ideology. Nia’s is obvious, she’s the other main flesh eater, and was persecuted for it as well. But, instead of letting that fear overtake her, she overcame it to see a better day because of the people around her who cared for her no matter what. And as for Rex…that conversation you showed? Not the real rebuttal. This is, in a cutscene after the Jin fight; “Who will stop the inevitable?” “Isn’t that why you blades exist? And when I’m not around to stand by you in that effort, someone else will! That’s right! When a person dies, that’s it for them. But their thoughts, and memories, will always be passed on to someone else. Isn’t that the same with you blades? Your past selves get passed down to someone else to become your new selves… isn’t that how you’ve always lived? We’re no different!” Rex fully understands why the cycle of drivers and blades exists; so that, even when a driver passes on, and a blade loses their memory, the memories of themselves is carried on by the next cycle, interpreted and given fresh perspective for improvement. The infection of Alrest is not its cycle of existence, but it’s own history, and those willing to exploit it. Jin doesn’t understand that his suffering is not indicative of the world and its failures. It’s caused by one man. When he gets Justice on in the end, he smiles for the first time in 500 years.
He still was throwing a fit over the death over someone the player can't and doesn't care about, making what he is doing an overreaction to something everyone in the world has to face.
@Kantrel 7 Jin is literally nothing like Noah. He lost a lot more than Lora. Everyone he knew and cared about was genocided, enslaved, and experimented on. His rights as a person were ripped away from him. Mikhail was a human kid with a good heart. And what did he become in hands of the people? A lab rat denied of his very humanity and rights like the blades themselves. For Jin, it’s watching your adoptive son be thrown into the dumps of being subhuman.
Spend 5 minutes on r/Xenoblade_Chronicles and you will know X is the black sheep of the franchise. You will see posts and fanart for 1, 2, and 3, but nothing about X, except the occasional comment in a post about 1, 2, or 3 begging for a Switch port.
Don't forget the best part about the X fanbase: the random dude rotating an image of murderess 5 degrees and posting it every week until news on X2 is released. In all seriousness, I hated what they did with X at first, but after getting it running on CEMU and playing through it where the text was actually legible, I really enjoyed it. I wish the main story was handled a bit better, but the sidequests and worldbuilding are phenomenal.
story of X was ass but on exploration lvl it was the best imo. might be subjective but for me the different landscapes look better than in any other xenoblade game
@@sasorioho I wouldn't say the story for X was bad. The Shyamalan twists at the end had me going. It was absolutely weaker than it could have been, but someone higher up told the devs it had to have a player avatar and online functions, so they had to scrap the original story and rush to finish to accommodate that demand. The remnants of that original story are there, but the player character not being someone memorable to connect with, like Shulk, really hurt the story. At the same time, at least they determined that, if they couldn't prioritize the story, then they'd go with the world and the side missions instead. Can't say that enough. Hope's sidequest almost got me as bad as Xenoblade 3's most infamous bit. It's almost the test run for what the emotional manipulation they pull in XC3.
Yeah, there was nothing "tiny" about that spoiler, unless that line was supposed to be a joke about babies being tiny. I actually HAVEN'T completed it, (the game is crazy long) but am almost there, and took "very tiny" to mean "something other than a thing that only gets revealed at the very end of the game." Now, I had already been spoiled on this in very general terms, because people don't know when to shut up, but seeing the actual image, which I hadn't seen yet, was definitely a little annoying. But just because shippers online are assholes who can't stop throwing their ships in everybody's face doesn't mean Ratatoskr should be an asshole, too. That spoiler warning definitely shouldn't have had a "it's super tiny, really, you don't need to worry about it, honest" caveat added to it.
@@brianlinden3042 i found the reveal in xb3 to be pretty significant as i was waiting to hear anything about post-xb2. just my personal reasons; if i had been spoiled by this video i wouldve been upset
@@Nora-rb6tr Yeah, practically the whole POINT of Xenoblade 3 is nostalgia for the first two. (I don't mean that as a criticism, either; it used that nostalgia effectively to accentuate the mystery of the setting without it wearing out its welcome.) In a story that leans into nostalgia for the first two in such a major way, showing off one of the few explicit details we get about what happened in the aftermath of one of them is a pretty damn major spoiler.
The Torna story expansion does a pretty good job of showing us the kind of person Lora was. She's a pretty cool person, and I can understand why Jin would be absolutely devastated after losing her. And yet, as odd as this sounds, it doesn't endear me to him much more than the base game did. It definitely adds for sure, but it also makes it a lot harder to believe his and Malos' whole dynamic, considering the whole fall of Torna and stuff. If you ask me, Mythra gained the most from that DLC. I didn't care about her at all in the base game, but seeing the conclusion of the story expansion really put a lot of her behavior into perspective. I still think she could've been written better, but now I can say that knowing what makes her compelling.
"Jin is throwing a hissy fit for something we all go through." No, because at least we get to cherish the memories. At least we get to move on. At least we get to grow from the experience. BLADES DON'T GET THAT. It's something that Rex has to teach him after their fight. "Rex never experiences what the antagonists experience." Yes. So? The thing about Rex is that he was never suppose to. Rex is different from everyone else in Alrest because he grew up in the Leftherian Arcapehlego. Far far away from strife and the depression that haunts every other person. In the cutscene in Elysium, Rex has to face everyone else's worries and fears and fails BECAUSE he doesn't understand them. He doesn't know what to do to solve it other than find Elysium. Rex, nor anyone else, is suppose to solve human suffering. He is there to show hope for the future that everyone else loses in their depression. Especially a 500 year long one. How the hell can you ever sympathetize with people who have lived for 500+ years? How the hell can you condense 500 years of suffering into a kid or young adult? Your problem is that it didn't conform to the trope. The trope essentially being that the villain is similar to the hero. He isn't, by the way. Part of the story is Rex not even realizing Prya and Mythra's suffering until the very end. He can't relate to that, instead he clings to that glimmer of hope that they have for the future. The hope that puts them at odds with Malos and Jin. "Look at Rex with his harem. Wah wah wah." Greatest laugh I had all year. I will always love seeing people seethe over a hero getting exactly what he deserves. Good friends and extraordinary family.
well said, i always said that rex Story was ultimatly one of growing up, of learning to understand people and suffering, and yet still clinging on on that child like innocence of hope for a better future, that so many people loose when they grow up, thats why he is devestated when Pyra decides to sacrifice herself to let them escape before morytha thats why he breaks down and BEGS everyone to help him at the very end when Pneuma decides to stay behind as well. People sacrificng themself for him(them) is rexs suffering, they are all temporary, but thats the point as well, rex is meant to retain his childlike hope, and only by not leaving them behind(his hope of a better morrow) was he able to actually return to them bootha t morytha and near the true elysium. Even him awakening the true blade plays into that imo, He isnt concerned about that "what could be " in the future, he is concerned about the "how to make it better". Adam was similiar in that regard, but being a prince, he was to close to people who likely sucumbed to power, who sceemed to gain more of it, he saw the depths of human malice (at least its likely, once again he is royalty, and his uncel isnt really, nice to him). Even if Adam had good intention in the end he is concerned about what could go wrong, and not what coudl go right even if hsi carefree attitude makes you beleive else. Thats likely why Adam never told anyone where he went, and why only one of leftherian blood/upbringing could open the seals on the aegis. Because only someone brought up at this remote place far away from strife of nations could someone be raised to be truely hopefull for the future and not assume the worst.
The entire point of Rex is that he is naive. It's not his flaw, it's the reason for his strength. We are even told that in-game by Zeke in one of the heart to hearts, that if Rex's life would've been otherwise, if he weren't that naive, then he wouldn't have the strength of will to go on this against-all-odds journey. To add to that, in the one time he kinda experienced failure - when Pyra was taken by Malos - he went into complete shock, became detached from reality, and had to literally be slapped on his face to get a grip on himself. The game shows us that he's inexperienced with dealing with pain and failure. I think all this actually makes him a great character. We the players aren't meant to sympathize with him, we only spectate him (much like Zeke and Morag, the "adults" of the party). We are supposed to feel like the broken-spirited grown-ups that we are. But it's through him that we get to remember that faint glimpse of being naive and full of hope. There's a strong magic in that feeling.
Also, something that is very subtle is that he has this set of rules that he follows to a T without really knowing why or how bring them to true fruition ( as when he leaves Pyra crying alone ) and part of his arc is to really integrate these rules into his own moral code without blindly following them. Also Malos, his arc is really "obscure" because to really appreciate it one must first consider the way that Drivers and Blades interact with each other, and how Amalthus drives Malos's actions right from the start. One can make the argument that it's "badly written" but, in this case, the counterargument can be made that this kind of "under the hood" storytelling isn't exactly common.
> rex doesn't experience what jin went through my brother in christ did you miss the part where Rex's parents were dead when he was a toddler and he literally had to work as a little kid to support his entire village by himself? he never got easy in life, he had to work just for his village to get by, the whole point of Rex's character is that he SHOULD be just as nihilistic as the rest of the world, that he should succumb to what the world tells him as such but he doesn't, he pushes through in a world where, in case you missed it, EVERYONE is suffering, everyone is just waiting for the inevitable end when the titans all die and there is no land left, Rex pushes against that mindset because living with hope for a better future is better than to just lay your head down, say it doesn't matter and wait for the inevitable end, and Rex isn't a goddamn moron, he's aware of how the world works, he isn't just saying "hope" nonsense with nothing to back up, he actively works to find solutions also even if you refused to bring up torna dlc, the base game Jin isn't just "sad because Lora died" it's the whole world that he sees an issue with, how blades can do nothing but forget about the lives they had and forget their bonds, Jin couldn't handle it anymore, and that's a point made through the whole game, and beyond all that, Jin simply wanted to die for 500 years, Malos gave him something to live by and he took his hand, even without the final cutscene, it isn't difficult to tell that they have appreciation for each other, the final cutscene just giving one final scene of how it all started between them, saying he is a nothing character because there weren't enough cutscenes with Lora is not something I can't agree with because that is not the point also also about the "harem" bit at the end, not only that is literally a poly relationship with Nia that you can get by watching the new game plus title screen which show what the intent is to be, but also do you WANT rex to be suffering after the events of 2? did you miss how pyra and Mythra were suicidal and only wanted to die? now they are happy with a happy family because they found the happiness they always seeked yet you twist this into being a "rex is a bastard because he has a family now so he can't speak about seeking hope"
Rex is not Hopeful or Optimistic he’s a realist he knows the world sucks but doesn’t act like a jerk about it he’s like Everyone else he’s just a normal nihilistic guy but just doesnt show it because why would he
I strongly disagree, I actually find XC2's villains to be its biggest strength. The thing about Jin is that people somehow seem to think that Lora's death is the be all and end all of his motivations, when that isn't the case at all. Heck, the first time Rex asked him why he does what he does Jin didn't mention Lora at all. Instead he brings up the fact that Blades lose all memories upon returning to their core, and are unable to pass down their memories or stories to others personally. That combined with the fact that the Preatorium has complete control over Blade distribution, (legally, anyway,) prevents Blades from being able to form their own culture. Jin also brings up how Blades are often treated as mere tools or weapons by most nations and people of Alrest. And the Blades are unable to rise against this due to the fact that both their lives and their values are tied to that of their Drivers. They have no choice but to go along with it all. That's the real reason Jin is motivated to kill the Architect and end the world, he views it as completely unjust and beyond repair, thus not worth living. Lora's death impacted him for sure, but it was not the sole reason for his mental descent. We have to remember that Jin didn't immediately start going on a rampage after Lora died. He was completely lost after it happened, having no idea what to do. He just wandered more or less aimlessly for a few hundred years, seeing the worst humanity had to offer in the meantime. It wasn't until Malos "showed him a path" an undetermined amount of time before the game starts that he truly started walking his dark road. Also, Rex hasn't experienced shit? Sorry did we play the same game? He lost both his parents when he was very young, and grew up as an orphan in a village that was not particularly well off. He started working as a salvager at the age of 10 so he could send money home in the hopes that his adoptive siblings can be sent to school and have a better life. He experiences death firsthand by Jin's own hand. He loses Vandham who he straight up says he viewed as a father. And he's seen some of the worst humanity has to offer on his journey. I think he's perfectly qualified to give a rebuttal here.
Rex is just a Gary stu with spongebob optimism. He ruins the game with his character. He's so obnoxious that I'm already repulsed by him indiscriminately.
Seeing as you already addressed your feelings on the DLC in a separate comment, I’ll spare you my thoughts in that regard beyond a simple encouragement to play it if you ever have the chance. I have a feeling that it would do well to turn your perspective on the game around. That being said, the two main problems I have with your critique are your assessment of Jin’s motivation as well as Rex’s ability to understand the cruelty of Alrest. Yes, Jin is a character who was set on his path by the death of Lora, and yes, death is something that most people need to deal with within their lifespans, but the simple fact of death is only part of it. Your assessment ignores how the nature of being a blade informs his feelings about death. The fact that blades are denied the ability to mourn and remember their loved ones without committing a gruesome atrocity against said loved ones, the fact that simply wanting to continue living with the memory of those you lost is enough to have you hunted down and killed, compounded with Lora’s untimely murder is what sends him on his downward spiral, not her death alone. By the time he is found by Malos, the embodiment of pure Nihilism, he is a broken man, and one whose raw emotions about the world could be easily reinforced and manipulated. In regards to Rex, it is explained at multiple points during the game that he is very well aware of what the world is capable of, and that his actions are made in acceptance of those truths, but the belief that they can be overcome. As a child, Rex’s parents were refugees who were ultimately killed in the crossfire of war, none to dissimilar to how Amalthus was orphaned. Rex grows up in the relatively impoverished land of Fonsett, a place that has been shaped by the atrocities of the Aegis war (originally established by the original Aegis Driver, Addam Origo), being home to many refugees and orphans similar to Rex. Contrary to Amalthus, Rex chooses to use his background and that of those around him as evidence that life and prosperity can exist despite how harsh reality can be, rather than simple evidence of life’s cruelty. As you said, he may not be very articulate, but to argue that he has no right to hold an opinion on the state of the world because of his living status after said issues have been resolved is a little absurd to me. Despite the issues I have with your critique, I still understand your opinion. I believe that XC2, despite its flaws, is a very misunderstood game. Hopefully you’ll play the Torna expansion at some point in the future, as I truly do believe that it does wonders for the base game in regards to world building and character elaboration (regardless of your feelings on how it should have been handled in the base game).
1. tbf Jin didn't want to live, he was doing it for Lora. Malos even states "Words can be a curse". the sole reason why jin is in depression is because of Lora's death and her wish for him to continue. 2. no, Rex parents died as they were reaching Fonsett, and only the mother is shown. not only that, he's been blessed far more than Jin, Amalthus and Malos. Not only was he taken cared and loved when growing up, he was taught by guidance, guidance from gramps and multiple people in his life. something that Amalthus sought on his way to Elysium, something that Jin needed and something that Malos gained in the wrong way. As poor as Fonsett is, it is not all scraps and trades. people farm there, they play and live there. as evident by the old grown ups still living in Fonsett, preparing the future generations (like Rex) to go outside of the nest and live their own lives. Rex will never truly understand Jin or Amalthus (maybe malos since he has an aegis but not by much). let's take other games as an example Shulk refutes Egil's actions and both of them have suffered the same experience and pain to understand each other. Sonic and Shadow, although Sonic has never lost a loved one like Shadow has or has any idea what it feels to be a created life form, sonic doesn't refute shadow's perspective, but rather he acknowledges it, which is why he let's shadow take decisions he might not agree with (like killing yourself to save the world). and a more direct example would be Omega and Shadow, both born from the machinations of Eggman yet both are completely different, Shadow refuting Omega's perspective on how wasteful it is to be a creation from eggman, giving him a reason that there might be more to life than killing the doctor. they really should've delayed teh game put torna in base, that way, there wouldn't be such problems
@@AlejandroRodriguez-cy8ee Nowhere did I state that Rex was capable of understanding Malos or Jin; that wasn’t my point. My point was a simple refutation of the idea that Rex is somehow ignorant or unaffected by the state of Alrest. You are correct in the idea that he cannot understand them, but at the same time, that’s what makes Rex a compelling subversion of the hopeful protagonist trope. Most protagonists that fall into that archetype are narrow-minded and entirely focused on contradicting or disproving the viewpoints of those that oppose them. Rex, I’m the other hand, is extremely open to the ideas of others and is punished at multiple points throughout the game when he is unable to accept their beliefs. He knows that he can never feel the pain they have felt, he’s a 15 year old boy from the most sheltered place in the world, which is why he takes care to hear out and empathize with the people he meets rather than attempting to find commonality. Every party member in XC2 comes from a place of anguish, people who are aimless in where to direct their frustrations about the world. Rex’s character is ultimately about helping others to orient their frustrations towards a positive outcome by hearing them out and showing them a path, rather than trying to simply convince them of their wrongdoing or his outlook through hot-headed diatribes. He simply wants people to direct themselves towards the happiness they want to find in the world, because that’s the gift that his parents afforded him by bringing him to fonsett. That isn’t to say his methods are faultless, or that he doesn’t require any growth when he sets out on his adventure. As I stated before, he is punished many times throughout the game for his ignorance and initial refusal to accept any methods beyond the perpetual hope he strives to uphold. His acceptance of Jin and Pneuma’s sacrifice are the climaxes of that arc for him, and are what ultimately ties together the philosophy Rex represents
@@jpswim3693 (I really didn't agree with how Rex wanted to somehow save jin, after all he did, but that's besides the actual point). 1. ...I don't think he tried that with Amalthus, granted he was long lost, but so was Jin. Pretty sure he, along with Nia, convinced Morag and Bridgid that killing or restraining the Aegis is wrong. and while Zeke was exiled so he can grow in wisdom, he wasn't really in a wrong place by the time Zeke met Rex (given his luck is abysmal, they seem pretty fine before even meeting rex) and Morag wasn't anguishing at all, she was just doing her duty, her anguish is locked behind a quest and a heart to heart, the sibling type of anguish. Also I TOTALLY agree on that 15 year old sheltered thing......sadly the game does not agree with the fact that he's a 15 year old sheltered boy as evidenced in Chapter 6, where rex is depressed and totally out of it due to his loss with Jin and Nia and Bridgid proceed to berate him for giving up and for not knowing that Pyra was suffering in silence and wanted to SUDOKU herself (because.....berating a 15 year old for not knowing how to identify and notice suicidal depressed people is......normal?? and the right way to do it??? with friends like those, who need enemies?). also didn't he try to find common ground with Jin at the start of Chapter 7? and by the team his friends found him and saw jin and got ready to attack them, Rex was about to stop them?? 2. i don't think he had any choice but to accept it. And also pretty sure Rex and Pneuma also had no choice but to accept Jin's sacrifice since SOMEHOW Amalthus KO'd Pneuma (the blade with the ability to bend reality and have the power of imagination....was knocked out by a tentacle. heck EVEN HAZE's power was about to overwhelm and control Pneuma). So is it really acceptance when Rex had no options to do or say anything about the matter?
@@AlejandroRodriguez-cy8ee for 1, I'd honestly say they were more annoyed with the fact that he was being so accepting of it as the only outcome, and him saying that he wasn't ever meant to be a driver and all that. It was more of a reaction to seeing their leader figure, regardless of his age(perhaps even forgetting his age due to how he has handled things sinse they had met him. Think the Toph situation, where the group completely forgets about weak spots she possesses due to her otherwise competency. Rex is noted for being exceedingly mature for his age, so seeing him acting more like a 15YO would, could throw them off), being so depressed. For 2, I think the reason that Amalthus was so obscenely strong story-wise is because he was absorbing the data from the core crystals, baking him a sort of artificial Aegis who had access to an Aegis and 500 years to dedicate all the resources of Indol to research for his "become god" form, while remaining a good public figure to the majority of alrest.
Speaking of Jin feeling undercooked, keep in mind that the DLC (Torna) was supposed to be slotted in just before Morytha, but was cut for being too long, so they made it its own game instead.
@@Ridgeriantotally agree unlike xenogears Xenosaga Xenoblade 1 X and 3 I beat Xenoblade 2 once never touched it again it really is the terrible odd one out of the bunch and yeah people may say oh but what about Xenoblade 1 and Xenosaga and X THEY HAD FAN SERVICE TO 🤪 Yeah they did but it was more SUDDAL SUBTLE and not just going every F cutscene of HEY LOOK BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS AND BOOBs oh Yeah IN IN YOUR FACE MORE BOOBS So this is what the creator meant when he said he wanted to do something different huh because he was bored pathetic yeah we get it he honestly should have just came out and said I want to create a very horny game for a younger crowd with a more dumb down characters it’s that simple ugh 😑 And yes Xenoblade 1 and future redeemed are still the best of the series so far
Rex is a crazy man with balls of steel to fuck three women stronger than him and dive into the deep waters of the cloud sea. He’s the biggest Chad we will never have again in the Xenoblade series.
I think you're wrong about Rex. He *does* experience what the villains experience. I don't mind Rex being a bumbling idiot without a deep philosophy to contrast the villains throughout the story because that's not what the story was about. Rex started out as an everyman, working to make a living, sending money home when he could. He wasn't destined for greatness until he got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Once he links up with Pyra, it's not some great philosophy that keeps him going, it's his higher aim. Literally, his aim is Elysium, the top of the World Tree, and he aims at it throughout the entire game. That's what drives him forward. It doesn't need intelligence or sophistication, he has an aim that he follows unwaveringly. That is, until the end of the story, and here is where he experiences what the other villains experience, and it's something that many if not most people experience in their lives. Rex finally achieves his aim and... He finds it empty. It's nothing at all like what he was promised. He was deceived throughout the story, and he takes this *hard*. Suddenly, the world doesn't make sense to him. His happy-go-lucky attitude completely falls apart, and he becomes deeply depressed. So much so that when he's given the chance to spend time with the two women he loves in an idyllic setting, where all he has to worry about, as Dostoyevsky put it, is "eat, drink, and the continuation of the species"... Rex breaks down. He breaks down in tears and asks himself if he went wrong somewhere. This was Rex's chance to descend into nihilism, to fall into the same pit that Jin and Amalthus fell into. But then the Architect sees this, explains the cycle of the world to Rex, and asks Rex what he will do now. Rex doesn't have Elysium to look up to anymore, but he still has his common sense everyman sensibilities, what makes him a fundamentally good kid, and he replies to Klaus quoting the Salvager's Code that guided him before Elysium: "First have a punch-out, then drink to forget. Once you've forgotten, the friendship's all set." Whereas Jin and Amalthus (and Malos by Amalthus's influence) decided the world was evil and needed to be destroyed after their descent into nihilism, Rex discovers a new appreciation for life, and that the point of life is to make it worth living. As he said earlier in Xenoblade 2, and (spoiler) in Xenoblade 3 to his daughter about why he keeps going, it's to put smiles on people's faces, and that makes it all worth it to him. He cements this perspective when he leaves Klaus with these words: "Thank you for giving us all life." And in that moment, he redeems Klaus's nihilism too.
First thing is first, I wrote this whole comment out earlier and UA-cam refused to let me post it, most likely due to the size of the comment (I have a lot to say, and not all of it is even covered here). So I copied it and came back to post it later cause I really wanted to contribute to the discussion. As such parts of this comment will perhaps be irrelevant due to the ongoing discussion, and it will be split into parts which can be viewed in the replies, hopefully they all get posted correctly. Full disclosure, I vehemently disagree with pretty much everything in this video, but no I won't unsub because you're well articulated and I think I understand *how* you came to your conclusions. Also this comment is by no means is all I have to say, but I can't write an entire article down in the comments (though it seems I came plenty close). As others have pointed out, some of the issues you bring up are addressed in the DLC. As you brought up in your comment however, you believe that those things should have been in the base game. I can understand your perspective, you believe everything should be there in a single package, however that is, by its nature, a very closed view. I'm not saying it's wrong or stupid, just narrow-minded, and that kind of thinking has its value. But viewing a single piece of art without context is not going to lead to a full understanding, particularly when the artist elaborates on their art. And it may be important to note that the story of the DLC was already conceptualized before the release of the game, so the artist isn't merely trying to patch holes retroactively, but expand your understanding of the story with context that the artist had, but you did not (though there are many things in the DLC that are implied in the base game's story). However, putting aside the DLC, I would argue your points are still weak mainly because you seem very focused on certain scenes without recognizing the significance of others. I can totally understand this, most who play the game latch onto specific scenes, and forget about others that are *extremely* important, I've been guilty of that.
Starting with Jin, the framework with which you're viewing Jin is fundamentally degrading, you describe him as having a "world destroying hissy-fit," this is actually something I see a *ton* of in discussion of 2. Labeling characters (naive Rex), degrading them (hissy-fit), simplifying them (Jin is just doing this because of his past), not taking them seriously or looking at them holistically (he has a harem and therefore his perspective is entirely invalid). I'm curious why this is so commonplace in discussion of the game, perhaps because the comedy is not meant to be taken seriously, it signals to people that the tragedy isn't meant to be taken seriously? I don't know. Your argument is that we aren't shown Jin's past enough to sympathize with him in the present, but who Jin *was* isn't the entirety of his character, he has a past and a present. Who he was, was someone seeking vengeance for the tragedy he experienced. But Jin isn't merely seeking vengeance in the present he is seeking a point to his life, when his life seems entirely devoid of it. He focuses on vengeance then realizes there's no purpose to be found there, so then he seeks for something more. This is made clear several times throughout the game. One instance is the cutscene where Jin and Malos are having a conversation regarding whether they are in control of their fates and what their similarities or differences to humanity are. But the cutscene that makes this the most clear is the final fight against Malos. There are a ton of details in the final cutscenes, particularly the final battle that many people miss. In the final fight, Rex makes several arguments (contrary to your view of him which I'll get into later), and one of the points he brings up is that Jin truly wanted to create a connection, a relationship, with Malos. And that's not all, Jin is also afraid of the future, specifically that the future will simply reflect the past with no meaningful change. This is made clear in the final fight between Rex and Jin where Jin makes the argument that humanity will turn Elysium into another Morytha, and Rex's response is that the blade's responsibility is to stop humanity from making those same mistakes. Blades are personifications of past teachings, they are born, they learn, and then they are passed on to the next driver (an allegory for the past being passed on to a new generation). Every one of the main antagonists are driven by many different motivations, Jin included. These are just a couple of Jin's other motivations. It's not all about Lora.
Then you briefly touch on Malos which is such a shame, because he is the best antagonist in the entire series. There is so much to Malos, some of which is clarified in the DLC. Without going into extensive detail on the DLC and speaking broadly (so as to avoid specific spoilers), in the past he was more arrogant, more like Amalthus. But after Malos falls in the aegis war, he is laid low and forced to let go of that arrogance to *some* degree. Amalthus rises after the aegis war and Malos falls after the aegis war, which is part of what leads them to be such different characters. You may question the idea that Malos lets go of his arrogance after the aegis war, considering how he comes across as arrogant for so much of 2. This is where the story of 2 gets complex on another level. One key thing to understand about the antagonists is that they lie about themselves to others as well as themselves (AKA they put up a false persona). For some this is really obvious, Mikhail puts on a romantic act which he only drops close to the end where he gets serious, though you see glimpses beyond the act in certain moments such as the descent into Morytha and one of his conversations with Patroka. Akhos is a more subtle example, he is obviously putting on an act, but its not clear until the end of his story what he is hiding behind it. In the end it's revealed explicitly that Akhos is holding onto a tender psuedo-family relationship with Patroka that he wants to keep safe, and more subtly, Akhos is hiding his *fear* behind the grandiose act he puts on. Malos hides the fact that he is "acting" arrogantly for most of the game, and although you see glimpses past the act, it's really only in the final battle that you get to see past the act fully. In the final battle Malos opens up the cutscene joking and openly saying "I sounded like Akhos for a moment there." Then when he goes over Jin's life and explains that what Jin went through is *one* of the key things driving him to destroy everything, Azurda points out that Jin's life turned out the way it did, in part, because of what Malos did. Malos responds, "That's exactly it, you've gotten smarter with age. I'm a hideous monster far beyond saving." Malos acts arrogant and condescending, but the truth he is hiding is that he *hates* himself, which is a huge difference between him and Amalthus. Amalthus, hates the world, but not humanity or himself. Malos hates everything, himself most of all. One big issue you seem to have with Malos is that he is effected by Amalthus and therefore can't have character agency, but it's far more complicated than that. In one of the most cryptic and difficult to understand interactions in the game, the architect tells Malos, "Do as you wish, if you believe that is your role." Malos responds, "Is that choice really "mine?" One of the key things that Malos spends the entire game questioning. The architect responds, "...It is a choice you made together." And Malos responds, "Good Answer." This is somewhat vague, but it seems that the architect is alluding that Malos played a role in the choices he made, his choices are effected by others sure, but he is fundamentally his own person who can make his own decisions. Malos has his own agency, which is part of the reason he hates himself, he chose this path. That is why he finds it a good answer, it assures him that he is correct in more ways then one.
You give a pretty good summary of Amalthus there are some things you missed, but I'm going to focus more on the main issue you take with Amalthus and the other antagonists. The main issue you seem to have is that for a large part of the story you don't care about the antagonists. This seems to be your main issue, but you don't seem to elaborate on it very much. Why exactly didn't you care about the antagonists? It seems that you think that the story took too long to introduce key elements of their backstory, and didn't spend enough time exploring their backstory. This may be the source of the issue, what you seem to want is more backstory and earlier, but what I don't think you quite realize is that there are so many scenes in the present that are focused on elaborating and fleshing out the antagonists. You seem really focused on their past motives, and not focused enough on who they *are* in the present, which partly involves new motives. Too much focus on the past and not enough on the present. It's difficult for me to mount a counter-position though because you aren't specific enough as to why you didn't find them compelling for most of the story. What exactly do you feel is missing? Perhaps an unfair question to ask, as it seems difficult to answer, but I'll pose it nonetheless because I'm curious.
As for Rex, spicy take, he's my favorite character in the series with Malos 2nd and Mythra 3rd. Perhaps a spicier take, Rex isn't stupid *at all*, he's naive and there is a *world* of difference. Rex doesn't know things, that doesn't mean he can't learn them. This is emphasized so many times throughout the game, and as he gets further into the game he learns more and becomes less naive. The scene you showed of Rex, is an example of his naivete, which he later overcomes. What he says is, "Life's about taking the good with the bad, so yea I like people." I agree this is a *trash* argument, but as is often the case, Rex has the right instinct. Rex knows that the existence of humanity is a net good, but he can't nail down a good argument for that...right then. But later in the story he overcomes the naivete you showcase in that very scene. After the scene you showed, he enters Elysium, gets called into the bowels of the church and is shown his greatest fears. That entire scene isn't just about his fears but also his doubts and guilt. It is in that scene that he is reminded of just how many risks were taken and how many sacrifices were made to achieve what they have on their journey, and he realizes that the good, isn't just good, it's bittersweet. At the very end of that scene he breaks down confused as to whether their journey was worth it, he doubts the value of the good they've done because of all the bad that it came with. You show Rex coming to a simple and unsatisfactory conclusion, and wrongly assumed that was it, it wasn't, he kept going and kept learning. In the very cutscene that you reference Zeke points out a flaw in Rex's reasoning, what if someone hates themselves. So Rex learns that the argument he put forth before is flawed, so what argument does he come up with to replace it? This is shown in the final battle. There is a *ton* of dialogue leading up to and foreshadowing this moment, but this entire comment is already way too long so I'll skip to the end. In the final battle Malos asks Rex, "Who do you think you're doing this for?!" And Rex's response is multifaceted, "I'm doing it...for myself. If it helps put smiles on other people's faces...Helps them live their lives together...Then that's my role in this world!" Many may assume because of the first line, that this is an admittance of selfishness but it's more complicated then that. If this is an admittance of selfishness, then why are his goals entirely selfless, to help put smiles on *other* people's faces and help *them* live *their* lives together. Earlier in Rex's conversation with the architect, the architect says, "What should people live for? Who should they live for? They live for themselves. To harbor desires and struggle to realize them - that is the natural state of man. But I did not think that was good enough." And to clarify Rex didn't just steal this argument from the architect and make it his motto, as is evidenced by several things. First at the end of his conversation with the architect Rex says, "Our answers matched." And several times close to the end of the game Rex makes reference to, "the answer." So Rex already came to the same conclusion as the architect, perhaps he wasn't quite able to put it into words, but he understood things in the same way the architect came to understand them (this journey of understanding, I think, starts after the spirit crucible elpys). As Rex says to Jin in their final fight, "I think I already know why, but I'd like to check my answer." There is so much leading up to the counterargument Rex uses to defeat Malos in the final fight, and this mistaken argument he makes is one misstep on his journey. It's really unfortunate that you didn't seem to spend time analyzing the final fight scene, since I think you could've learned a lot from that scene, there are so many details packed into that one scene.
I'll leave this comment off with one last thing, I may vehemently disagree, but there's no malice intended, and if that came across I *wholeheartedly* apologize. I'm not mad, I just sincerely want to help people better understand this story because there is a lot more to it than most realize. I don't want to act like I know it all either, I learn new things about the game all the time, each playthrough I do, I recognize things I didn't realize the last time. And I'm not a fanboy, the game has some flaws, though to point them out I'd have to make this comment longer than it already is. The unfortunate thing about covering 2 is that there is so much to discuss, that a short video like this simply can't give a good view of the game, for anyone involved. The game is long for a reason, there is a lot of detail and a lot to spend time thinking about. Even this comment doesn't come close to covering everything I would like to bring up, this is truly a drop in the ocean. I understand you may want everything in a single package, as you alluded to in your comment about the DLC, but art isn't that simple. You can't understand art in a vacuum, even though I myself have wished that it could be so simple.
The Torna DLC fixes the issue with Jin and a bit with Malos, but that's all in hindsight. If we were shown Torna in the main story as originally intended, it would have worked fine but it was delayed and then locked behind a paywall. Anyone who played before the DLC was released is missing the context there and to have it locked behind a paywall means some people would never get that context. I have this exact same problem with FF15. The DLC stories for your party shows what happened to them while separated from the party and what they had to go through. But playing through the main game alone means they just show up again with a lot of development and no real explanation.
What makes Jin so detestable (at least for me), is that he acts like it's totally okay to murder people just because he was hurt. It doesn't make sense to me that he would become a terrorist, if he could have gone and killed Amalthus, the one who actually hurt him. Instead he lashes out at so many innocents, e.g. Haze, only killing Amalthus when all the weird world tree fight stuff happens.
He killed Haze because she was enslaved to the praetorium and he wanted her to be free. He views slavery as a fate worse than death, and that mindset defines his motivations and actions throughout the game
Haze hated the idea of ever becoming the Blade of Amalthus. Amalthus actively went against her morals, and through dramatic irony, she does end up being his Blade. Haze is the only Blade who forgets her own name. She's literally manipulated by Amalthus so he can abuse her power. Amalthus stole her name and half her core. Jin did not kill Haze because he's a terrorist. He killed her because the Haze he knew would never want to be Fan la Norn. Aside from killing Amalthus, which we see is borderline impossible since he can literally control Blades and Titans, this was the only way Jin could set her free from the "master and slave" system.
His point is very subjective though, its easy to prove something wrong when the point is just "I acknowledge this is good writing but I don't care for it," because hes not proving why its bad at all
I believe you oversimplified Jin massively. We do spend time with Lora if you allow the Torna DLC, and Lora's death isn't the sole thing that gave him a chip on his shoulder. He resents the entire system of the world and the stranglehold Indol has on blades and war-power.
I really don’t fucking get it when Jin before Torna showed sympathy for war weapons, titans, blades, Mikhail, Malos, and the genocide of Torna. Lora’s final words to Jin were the most haunting and reflective of XC2’s world. Literally, only N and Noah are actually this one-note and shitty. No amount of dlc will save their poorly written asses and their poorly written waifus. They’re literally worse Jin without any of the other flavors Jin had to resent reincarnation, war, and humanity.
I also think he grossly oversimplified the villains here. I made a comment going over my thoughts on each extensively, but yeah, Lora's death is honestly one of the smaller bullet points on Jin's list for doing what he does. Lora is a "reminder," not a reason.
I know there's another thread of comments talking about this but I just want to emphasize the point that I think you heavily underhanded that spoiler warning for XB3. If I'd seen what you shown before watching the cutscenes I know I would've have been upset. I can't imagine what someone else like me would've felt like if they'd played through the 120 hours of XB2 and 3. I'm also curious what your general opinion is of some of the comments bellow. I think a lot of them bring up some good points about Jin and Rex and I want to know if they've changed your perception of them. To iterate what I'm talking about... Jin: You understating how the death of someone (and also to an extent oneself through memories) can drive someone to want to destroy the world around them that brought that pain, especially when given the avenue to do so. That avenue being Malos as well as Jin's new found power. Rex: You saying that Rex hasn't gone through enough pain to have the authority or empathy to rebuke the antagonist's struggles. For me, I was personally agreeing with everything you said until I read some of the comments reminding me that Rex has gone through a lot of pain, it's just that the majority was told rather than shown. My last question is that I just want to make sure that the last bit about Rex and his harem is a joke? I'm fairly confident that it's a joke but I see a bunch of people in the comments taking it at face value so it makes me think that either I could be wrong or that other people should know it is a joke. While I understand you stating that it's a joke might ruin it in some sense, I think it's important that people understand what's being said when something is being discussed. I love you videos btw! You're one of the few people on UA-cam that seem like they're looking for disagreement and insight into topics like this. If anyone sees anything that I'm wrong about or disagree with please correct me! I haven't played / seen XB2 in awhile.
I understand some people were emotionally invested in Jin's story, but I think I made it clear through the video that I understand completely what the game was trying to go for. It didn't land for me but I think it would have had the elaboration I mentioned existed. I think it would have landed for a lot of people had we been shown more. As for Rex, again we would have benefited from more "show don't tell." I don't think it's very effective to just tell me that Rex had a hard past. Yes the last part was a joke.
@@ratatoskr6324 well, we get him being impailed by jin, vandahm dies right in front of him and we see him taking pyra to his parents grave. Its not like it's never shown that he had a rough life.
@@dragongamer4753 While I think the parent's grave is a good example, I don't want to include Vandahm's death or Jin stabbing Rex. The antagonist's argument is that the world is bad, meanwhile the Vamdahm and Jin events (among others) only happened because of Torna and Amalthus instead of by the general world like it was for them. Just to be absolutely clear, I'm not trying to say that those events aren't traumatic. The point I'm trying to make in this comment is that to the player I don't think it's communicated enough that Rex has had the general world be as cruel to him as it was for the antagonists outside of their own actions.
@@ratatoskr6324 Thank you for the reply! I probably should have watched the video again after reading the comments to make sure I correctly interpreted your points. Seeing some of the comments make some misinterpretations made me take them as fact. I'm far to impressionable sometimes
You're spot on, and the devs also agreed with your first point because the entire Torna DLC gives us much needed insight into Jin. Tbh I have no clue how XB2 fans managed without that DLC. I was one of the weirdos that played DLC First> Main game so some things from the game were spoiled for me but it did make it so that everytime Jin was on screen I was feeling incredibly upset over what happened to my boi. Edit: Just finished watching video... LOL'd @ your reaction to Gigachad Rex.
Yea.. The resulting bond of Malos and Jin feels like kinda rushed because you kinda lack the proper context of Jin's struggle during the Aegis War and the weight of Lora's death and why Jin is so dead serious in Reaching Elysium...
@@vivid8979 i mean, tbf i kinda see it the opposite way, before we had TGC we coudl speculate how Malos and Jin came to meet, fight and ultimatly join hands.. after TGC Jin just comes across like a moron for joining Malos even if he at that point gave up on humanity. No interaction in TGC made me think "it makes sense for Jin to later join Malos after lora dies" no.. it went "ok, i KNOW you are upset, but.. this dude is LITTERALY the blade of the person who effectivly killed your driver(the preator), taunted you and lora at every opportunity, caused several of loras new found comrades to "die" and basialy was responsible for everyhting shitty that happend to you after givne without him you and lora woudl never have experienced any of this".. the "added context" made jin less compelling to me and more like a fucking moron Yes Rex is naive.. but at least i can buy his naivity .. Jin joins malos by circumstance of lost braincells
@SGT_Weber Jin simply wanted the world to burn at that point in his life and Malos given him a way. It does help that Malos is one of the few people that remembers him and will be shocked on what the heck happened to him, Lora, and the remains of Torna. Mythra practically disappeared the moment Jin needed her the most.
I really like how you articulate your points, and I think based on your own understanding of the characters, that makes sense. However, I think you missed or are turning a blind eye to the nuances of the villains in this game. How they may play off each other thematically, but they have different answers for what brought them to where they are. Malos is someone who is driven purely by nihilism to his very core, but it's through his own nihilistic realization of who he is as Amalthus's Blade that leads to this self hatred. It's not that Malos thinks the world is awful, it's that all his mind can functionally see the world as, is awful. His entire understanding of living is an instinctive want to watch the world burn, that was passed down to him by Amalthus. Through Jin, Malos sees a way to relate to someone on his level. Jin has reached rock bottom, where Malos feels he himself belongs, and Malos was the one who put him there. It's in this misery that they see a way out through each other. Malos not understanding what attunement could be or how to achieve it, uses Jin's goals as a guide for his own self-worth. He seeks some possible way to help someone through what he was born to do, destroy. Comparatively, you have Amalthus, who acts as a reflection of Malos and vice versa. Both of these characters work to give us a full picture of both of them. It's what makes them both so compelling, as a question for one is echoed and answered by the other. When Amalthus says at the end of Chapter 9 "If I change I lose everything, I lose my very self. Who in their right mind would accept such a fate?" Amalthus sees all the atrocities he's committed in life as defining qualities of who he is, in the same way that Malos defines himself as his destructive desires. If either were to admit their own faults, they would be accepting that everything they did up until that point is "meaningless." Losing their very selves and being crushed under the weight of existentialism that comes with a loss of self. All Malos has in life is this, in the same way that Amalthus feels his impact on the world, through Malos and his own actions, defines who he is. It's this reflection back and forth between, them both that gives us the full picture. And now with all that said, we get to Jin. Jin is the result of Malos and Amalthus's influence on the world. Someone who is completely broken as Blades are born into a systemically oppressive world that forces them into war and ties them directly to one person. To Jin Blades are enslaved because of humanity, their very existence is to "live for humans, not with them." He feels that the Architect didn't create a fair world for Blades, and despite all of Torna's desires to live in peace with Humans and Blades as one, the world will always return humans to their destructive ways. The destruction Malos caused Jin doesn't make Jin hate him, because to Jin all that Malos is, is defined by Amalthus. He's simply living in the same oppressive system Jin is. To Jin Blades are enslaved, they have no legacy or culture. They have nothing that allows them to live in a world not defined by humans. Now the answer to all of this, is a goofy salvager boy, who grew up orphaned in a peaceful town untouched by war his entire life. Though Rex has seen the devastation of it, it doesn't define his perspective on the world in the same way every villain does. What Rex offers Jin isn't understanding, it's a new perspective. A perspective that shows Jin that Blades are, if anything, more fundamentally important to the world than humans are. It's their legacy and continuation of each new generation of Blade that allows all life, history, civilization, and culture to grow and prosper. Rex shows Jin that there's a purpose to every life in Ahlrest. That Blades, just as humans, fight to make a mark on the world. The legacy that they pass down doesn't solely exist as humans in Blades, its all of them together at once. It's a codependent perspective rather than the nihilistic one Jin sees. To me, the villains are some of the best writing in Xenoblade 2, so to see them boiled down like this, I think, really does them a disservice. I feel like I could go on for ages, but here's my mass text wall for anyone who cares to give it a read.
So Mythra being alive for like over 1000 years and a grown women, then to go bang some super young dude is kind of messed up. Nia Smashing Rex is fine but the Pyra/Mythra thing is way too far
I feel like there's this common problem among Xenoblade games (maybe not 1, been a while) where they write a 200 hour epic and then, when it comes time to bring it down to a 60~100 hour game, they cut around the edges of their epic instead of reworking it, leaving massive gaps where the plot used to be. 2 actually suffered the least from this IMO, to me X and 3 are just outright incomplete.
eh X didnt really suffer as it wasnt designed around the story itself, people just have thew eird obsession and think because its story was simplistic that it was "bad" 2 is more depatable also the combat in 3 certain felt better then in 2.. but thats also because i fucking hate stutterwalking in 2 and thats gone in 3 so i was obligated to like it
@@weberman173 Whether or not the rest of the game is great (and it's like top 3 for me, so I don't disagree), the main story is absolutely incomplete. So many plot threads just don't go anywhere, and half of them are post-credit scenes...
@@renegadecomic7577 3 combat is a middle ground between 2 and 1/X, without quite being as deep as either. If you want to see big number it's fun, but it can feel tedious with the encounter rate and without stutter stepping, especially if you do side content because you'll inevitably overlevel the game. Still really satisfying to do a big combo, though. Still, I wouldn't sleep on the story, IMO it's got the best climax in the series. It's just that... Everything between that climax and the ending is on the level of Windwaker's triforce hunt. Really feels like a few chapters are just missing.
@@renegadecomic7577 It's kinda similar to 2, but a little less complicated and the game actually explains it to you. And the menus are a lot faster, and you can save loadouts for the party.
i've already finished the game but i did see that picture like 3 times before i beat xenoblade 3 it's crazy how the xenoblade community is good with that spoiling things but everyone just can't stop showing THAT photo lol. i'm glad it's just more of an easter egg and not a gigantic plot point really.
That picture at the end of XC3…when I first laid eyes on it, I had to google it afterwards to make sure I was seeing it correctly. What a really weird choice they made for Rex.
honestly it was pretty obvious he would get together with at least Pyra and Mythra because it was obvious thery were in love and having kids is the logical conclusion for adults. I was more suprised by Nia joining them though, but I like it this way. Also, I dont judge Rex for this decision because he literealy saved all of them and this is still a fantasy world where polygamy seems fine as long as everyone is cool with it lol
@@littleredfox6849 I think the who polygamy thing truly caped off how odd XC2 was. I guess the game warns us early on with Poppy clearly being Tora’s sex doll. And all the other well endowed blades. I’m just glad they moved away from that stuff in XC3.
I think you misunderstood Jin. The problem wasn't that Lora died. The problem is that he didn't have much of a choice when it came to his personal connection to her being permanently severed. And this is something that's brought up not only in Jin, Haze, Bridgid, and Pandoria's story, but also in sidequests in the game. Similarly Lora understood as a mercenary and a driver she would someday die probably. The world she grew up in death was common place and she also lost her only living relative. Her problem is her tie to Jin would be severed. As a blade he has no choice in this. And that was something he realized when he found his diary of his past life with his previous driver. Despite living a full life full of memories, all of that was gone the second his driver died. There was no sense of self that he could build by the nature of the world and that didn't apply to just him, that applied to all blades. That is why Jin wanted revenge against not only Indol, but the Architect. A lot of blades in the game stuggled with this. Bridgid kept a diary but had no idea if the events of her past life were even accurate. Haze was fully robbed of her connection to Lora and was forced to serve Amalthus for 500 years in a lobotomized state, Pandoria didn't even mind that giving part of her core crystal to Zeke meant that she would die when he did. That's what she wanted. And I disagree that the game doesn't tell you this. In the scene where Jin kills Haze he tells you his motivations directly. "Why are we the slaves and you the masters?" Why are blades sentient but have zero control over their own lives and their own destiny. A sidequest for Praxis/Theory even shows you that if a blade disagrees with their driver fundamentally all they can do is choose death for their driver or themselves. And it's also why he killed Haze who he was extremely close to since she was also a blade Lora had strong ties to. She had no control over her destiny and due to having her core crystal mutilated the only thing fate had in store for her was being a tool of Amalthus until she died. She even said prior to everything going south that she would never want to serve someone as terrible as Amalthus. So if he was simply upset at Lora dying he wouldn't have done this because Haze is also someone he cared for. This was also emphasized by the fact that even though Lora's death is what started it, that same problem was something he ran into in past lives. This was noted both in his diary and his past life conversations with Gramps. What changed is that he was able to view the world without the lense of his driver coloring it. So he saw the widespread blade oppression, the constant meaningless wars, and the extent humans would go to gain power for themselves even if it leads to their own destruction. That is why he sides with Malos in the main game.
Well said. It's a shame that people would only look at things on a surface-level and not dig deep into it. Downplaying Jin's motivations to Lora dying is just plain stupid when even the base game shows you why he acted the way he did.
@@Libromgeoffrey Yeah a lot of people look at his speech as edgy anime prattle, but he does genuinely mean what he says. However, at that point in the story the player and Rex are intentionally not given the full context. That's why Rex was confused by Jin killing Haze, but Gramps wasn't.
@@24hr-Gaming it was such a good speech too. The line about blades being denied their own culture due to their life cycle reminded me of Albedo's speech about human culture.
@@justice8718 Take Jin's last comment in Torna and apply it to what happened with Noah and N. N and M's relationship is a different take on what happened with Jin and Lora. This comparison is also intentional by the devs since a lot of Noah's arts when Lucky Seven is out resembles Jin. Even Jin's move that's referencing Citan is there. The other important bit is Noah and N can't accept Mio's death. Jin does accept Lora's death. Because he's a blade he fully understands that some day Lora will die. But the part he can't stand is that his life and memories with her would be taken from him when she does because he's a blade. His previous life also ran into that same problem which is why his past self learned how to become a flesh eater and passed that knowledge on in his journal.
these are literately the reasons I LIKE the villains of 2. Also if you want to bash a game for having shit villains, attack Xenoblade 3 because Z is, like you said in the video, not fleshed out enough and not given enough time to have a spotlight really.
I see Rata out here making videos out of jealousy. But real talk, I think you hit the nail on the head. In my experience, a good story will fail when characters aren't very good, but a bad story can still be enjoyable if the characters are likeable and presented well.
I disagree In contrast to the complex and absolute ego, the counter is acceptance and the naive. The villans plight is looking for meaning upon meaningless nothingness, and they fail to see the grander picture of life in of itself. Instead they impose a projection of their own reality, their suffering, their hardships. The individual left unchecked will see a world of their own making, doomed to never see past their observations. The story needs Rex as a contrast for he lacks philosophy. Xeno 3 has a great scene at the end where N says something along the lines of "I shall show you the eternal pits of my despair," and Noah replies, "that's just sadness." Within psychology the longer you ruminate on a thought the stronger you codify this into your being. Villans of Xeno become God's. They become authority. Their realities they hold as thrueth and will bend others to their will. Again in 3, Z spoke clearly in his defining eternity and the "now" as it is all he has experienced. But the main cast barely undestand his philosophy, going as far to say, "I kinda understand what he's saying". Fresh eyes see past what age holds as absolute. To have a strong philosophy against a strong philosophy stands to erect the same issue. What is Rex to do? Become studious? Read Kant? My favorite part of Rex is that he is some teenager, tackling the ego of eternal beings. Why is it the stories job to make you care? Why should a story work to empathize villans? >Yeah he committed genocide, but when he was 5 he spilt his ice cream. Knowing this makes me understand his plight. The authority is dillusional to begin with, to see through his eyes is wanting to be disillusioned the same way.
Well this is a very interesting take that I haven't ever seen before. Not sure how to really respond. This is one of my favorite games of all time and it makes me very upset that so many people have issues with it. I'll admit many of it's faults. Definitely not a perfect game. But this game just hit me on such a powerful emotional level that I can't help but love it. Combined with my favorite OST of all time and one of my favorite battle systems ever. I can't agree with your take on this game but I guess I see where you're coming from. A lot of my love for the game is emotional rather than logical
XC2 is definitely a contender for my favourite game of all time and while I don't agree with everything you said in this video I still really loved it. I can definitely see why the villains didn't satisfy you and to me I'd attribute it mostly to the unfortunate development of the game. Monolith was so split between helping many other Nintendo games and there was only something like 40 people plus some outsourcing working on Xenoblade 2. The entirety of the Torna DLC was meant to be part of the vanilla game around chapter 7 ish I believe. If Monolith had a full team and maybe some more time I'm sure the time needed to make you care more about the villains would be made within the game. Also the last part about Rex not understanding what the villains go through and thus of course he thinks life is great and worth living, well I think this was EVEN WORSE in Xenoblade 3. There's many examples but the one that pissed me off the most was AND BIG SPOILER WARNING HERE FOR XENOBLADE 3. Joran's sacrifice and death scene. The entire game he's treated like this double crossing betrayer who's gone mad and torments his past friends. While he certainly does some pretty horrible things it's when he states in chapter 6 how all he wanted was the approval of the 3 Kevesi party members and they basically just say "lol no you're lying to yourself" and "yeah your pathetic but that's important". The entire party just ignores his whole reason for turning moebius AND EVEN WORSE is that they push him to sacrificing himself AGAIN because clearly they are oh so more important than him. This also becomes even stupider when you take into account the fact that Joran is an obviously cut hero character since he's got full artwork and code in the game alongside empty spaces in the hero roster. None of the party members even his childhood friends in Noah, Lanz and Eunie actually give a fuck outside of the couple times Lanz was little sad for a cutscene or 2. Xeno games are still masterpieces in my eyes and definitely some of if not my favourite games but they also take things that could be relatively simple to fix and or expand on and just drive them into the ground.
I'd say rex does understand the villains suffering a little bit. (As well as any 15 year old would understand 500 year old depressed guys.) He is so incredibly optimistic and hopeful he trys to get them to see that there is more to this world then simple suffering there is beauty and there will be a tomorrow.
I absolutely grew to despise the Joran tower scene by the end of the game. They showed it REPEATEDLY throughout the story, as if it was this comparable to-let's say-Sephiroth burning down Nibelheim. But it just wasn't that impactful to me as the audience. They damn near showed that tower crashing down on Joran at least 50 times throughout the entire story, and I couldn't agree more: the main characters could still give two shits about Joran. Just the way they wrote the characters and their relationships were offensive to me, a long-time XC fan. It felt ham-fisted, rushed, and down-right uninspired. The real tradegy here is amount of praise XC3 is getting, while it seems like the JRPG community is turning a blind eye to it, because "aT LEasT tHeRe'S no MOrE anImE WiFuS" nonsense. It makes me sick, because XC2 is such a masterpiece, while XC3 couldn't even begin to hold a candle to its predecessor and the feats it was able to achieve.
@@hiotsobo XC3's chapter 6 and 7 are Xenogears disc 2 levels of rushed. Still love both of those games and even those parts but turning a blind eye to the negatives is disingenuous.
@@Pine2142 I'd have to hunbly disagree with you on the last part, as XC3 has been met with glowing praise from the vocal fan base and critics alike. It's near impoissible to find criticsim of the story and characterization of XC3 from anyone online. Seeing how games are a subjective artform, it's not possible to actually come to a conclusive understanding as a collective on every aspect of a game, and I understand that fully. I'd write out a thesis on XC3 and it's massive shortcomings if I had the time, but I will agree with you that the game's final act felt disjointed and rushed. I just wish people applied more critical thinking to how the characters and their relationships were equally as rushed as the final chapter, delivering a mediocre and unfulfilled story in the end. What's more, is how the writers didn't fully utilize the ouroboros as a major character developing tool. They literally shared BODY. MIND. MEMORY AND SOUL. Yet, it ended up just being some "cool" new mechanic to use in battle. So dissapointing
It's so funny seeing your visceral reaction to Rex being married to 3 women XD. It's weird since in alot of Asian and Middle Eastern countries polygamy is completely normal and accepted, while they see Homosexuality as disgusting and wrong, and it's completely the opposite here in the west where polygamy is abhorrent while Homosexuality is normal and sometimes even desirable. It seems Morality is relative.
@@TheOwlet22 you know which specific countries? I'd like to read about that. Wouldn't that have created alot of problems though? Since "Anal sex" whether homosexual or not is one of the main causes of STDs, now we have medicine and condoms but back then how did they deal with such issues? Yeah I need to read more about it.
@@alenezi989a3 I mainly focus on the Philippines in regards to my study of South East Asia, which is one of the countries that lost most of its culture and history under colonial rule, so I'll admit that I can't answer most of your questions. However I do recommend you check out Kirby Araullo here on UA-cam, he's a Filipino historian who posted a video or two in regards to LGBTQ+ in Precolonial Philippines EDIT: oof UA-cam deleted my earlier comment, I'll try sending the first one I wrote again
@@alenezi989a3 From Brief reads: Philippines, Thai and Indonesia (I was going to send you links to articles but looks like UA-cam's stopping me lol). I think there's more tho since ASEAN is pretty diverse before (and even after) Colonialism
The REAL problem with the game on a mobile platform with a battery and an option to switch to another game - is that there is NO BLOODY AUTO-SAVE feature. I've lost 15 hours of game time, just because the game crashed. With the multiple tutorials (I was a new player and it didn't bother me the same as many others Xeno fans) why not to tell a player (perhaps, even few times) that you have to save the game after every quest??? I love the game and the characters and the mechanics. Not the blade core random system - which is rubbish.
That took an unexpected and hilarious turn there at the end. Forgot this was meant to be a shitpost for 10 minutes. Xenoblade 2 feels like it was hurt by being a bit rushed, both in terms of game design and writing. Torna TGC does expand on the backstory of Jin and co. even if it was late addition that should have been there from the start and had its own issues. At least it finally managed to make me care a bit about Lora and Haze 50+ hours after their deaths. Turns out I liked Lora a whole lot more as a protag than Rex. That said, if you can find the time and motivation to do so you really should give Torna a try!
Lora was a great heroine, whose demise was all the worse given that she survived the climactic battle of the Aegises only to be killed in the ensuing fallout.
gotta say tough, gigachad rex at the end of xenoblade 3 got a good laugh out of me it was worth it, for the best character in the game by a landslide at least i'm of course talking about nia
Mostly Rex doesn't lose anything permanently or suffer any loss after "the tragic backstory incident" makes his perspective less convincing. If his ending was more bittersweet or even unfortunate and he still said "take the good with the bad" it feel more compelling rather then self-righteous gloating.
@@danielnolan8848 Dude, he’s an orphan. He gets dragged into trouble at every step because people want to use or kill his friends. And on top of that, he was completely unaware his friend wanted to die because all she felt she did to him was cause pain, and had to be told secondhand after she had been killed because he wasn’t strong enough, because he didn’t understand her. That’s a fucking lot.
@Goro Akechi Her coming back undercuts that alot, which again is the issue that none of the setbacks for Rex WE AS THE PLAYER experience are lasting, only minor setbacks undone latter on. We don't "live" with the bad, it's just surface level, which would not be a problem if the story was acting as if we do. Monilith wanting to tell an uplifting story to the detriment of the character is one thing, surrounding said character with far more compelling companions and antagonists compounds this, making him an obvious bafoon in 90% of scenarios further undercuts any times he's not as the writter preaching not the character
@@danielnolan8848 I’m willing to meet you halfway, because yes, the rest of the cast is much more compelling than Rex, and Rex can be pretty preachy sometimes. But Pyra coming back undercutting her death is…eh? I get where you’re coming from, don’t get me wrong, but Rex still had to fight like hell to get her back, including finishing his character arc, and Nia’s, and keeping his promise, even though it’s gonna get him killed and Pyra’s dead. Definitely can be undercutting, but I think it’s alright because Rex seriously worked for it, on an emotional level.
@Goro Akechi True, I do not think Rex is an absolutely worthless character that could not be salvaged. He's not wrong, just one of the last people in his own universe to talk about living with loss. Monilith done better before and since, a bit of minor retooling and he would probably get there
@@ratatoskr6324 i think you just need to specify that the tiny spoiler is from the ending next time. People take spoilers from the endgame very seriously and its easy for them to misunderstand "tiny" as meaning something unimportant from the early game.
Nothing about Polyarmorie, and nice what the Wolf Lady didnt got sidelined, but yeah he never faced any real lost, besides short term Associates. And I dont think I hated what they are trying to tell, I doubt I could actually make it out, but I was never refusing to admit this Game had potencial. But its completly unrealised, the only good in it is the Soundtrack. 4/10, play XC1 instead.
The thing that sends Amalthus down the path of nihilism is the exact same thing that sends Rex on the poth of optimism. He quite literally does face loss but he goes about dealing with it differently than the villains do
Ive only seen your Monster Hunter videos, so I was quite surprised to see this one and wow does it mirror my thoughts almost exactly. Although I’d say that even if Jin and Malos were given more screen-time, choosing to write the protagonist as someone who is understanding of genocide meant that the story of this game was always going to fall flat for me. It just reeks of childlike naïveté; I’m not saying a story can’t revolve around the worldview of an innocent young child (I love Totoro), but when your game involves deep and mature themes like depression, existentialism and genocide, Rex and his commitment to seeing good in even the most vile individuals just robs the story of any weight or seriousness. A lot of commenters are mentioning that the Torna DLC solves the Jin issue, which it does tbf but only insofar as it fleshes out his motivations. It still isn’t enough for me to sympathise with a genocidal maniac with world-ending ambitions. Fucking nothing is. Amalthus should have been the only villain in the game; he had a believable enough reason to go full Hitler considering his childhood trauma and religious fanaticism, but he was still treated as the massive POS that he is and whose death wasn’t meant to be some sad tear-jerker. In an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi (the game’s executive director and writer of every Xeno game since Gears), he mentioned how he was inspired by his childhood when making this game. This is speculation, but I think that was why we ended up with such a young protagonist in Rex and his childish personality. Because he was literally based off an 8 year old. Unfortunately this clashed with Takahashi’s usual Xeno tendencies of telling grand and tragic philosophical operas. Thankfully with Xenoblade 3 they decided to shift away from such a perspective.
@@skylandersfan6954you’re right, I didn’t like how they resolved N’s arc. But they at least covered it up with that weird Jungian “shadow” crap they loved to use in the old Xenogears and Saga games. Plus the fact that it was literally *himself*. I can get behind Noah making up with N, just not the other party members. And tbf, none of them actually chipped in with “what a great soul you were, N” nonsense. They just stay quiet. Like, at least there’s an attempt to dress it up. I’m still not happy.
@@skylandersfan6954 you just listed half of the main party? And iirc Morag even expresses jealousy at Malos knowing his purpose in life. I mean when one of the main criticisms Xeno 2 fans have of the third game is that the Moebius villains were “just villains” and didn’t have any “depth” to them, which is just another code word for not sympathetic enough, that’s when you know where their priorities lie. I don’t want to crap all over the second game, so I’ll say that I thought Amalthus was a very, very good villainous character.
This is the greatest video on xenoblade two or 3 I’ve ever seen! How are you the only one mentioning that awful picture at the end of xenoblade 3. This was UA-cam gold. Thank you!
@@skylandersfan6954 Because I think it was a bad choice to include a picture of Rex and his ladies. To me that’s not fan service, that’s simply ridiculous. How can you take anything in the game seriously after that.
So two things, thanks for the spoiler warnings for 3! It is something I have complained about in the past and it's appreciated, also Xeno 2 is one of my favourite JRPGs and I hear 0 lies in this video, unfortunately you won't have me unsubscribe yet.
Nah man. Jin is well written. Malos in my opinion seems like the worst one as far as the writing. Also Malos was the one throwing more hissy fits in general. It's like he was created to be evil by The Architect. He can't help himself and that is literally his core motivation which is extremely lame. Jin, on the other hand is more complex and his motivations are understandable. Sure he's definitely self-centered when it comes to his pain and grief but that's normal for a lot of people and not everyone has the wisdom or the emotional maturity to keep themselves from lashing out or trying to destroy everything they hate.
Oh you've waded in to dangerous waters Rata...Xenoblade fandom is quite "diverse" and nowhere will you match up against the staunchest of shills than when you go for Xenoblade 2.
I'm hoping that people will realize that I'm approaching the topic honestly. And that I understood the point of the game, it just didn't land for reasons covered in the video.
@@ratatoskr6324 Your intentions never seemed dishonest by my measure! By the way, I know you'll probably hear a lot about how the DLC "fixed" the story, but this isn't really true from a lot of folks' perspective. You certainly get a much bigger helping of Lora/Haze/pre-angst Jin (Malos is basically identical in this off-shoot, with nothing new to learn about him) but it doesn't really bring anything new to light other than contextualize the innocence of Lora and how tragic her death was. I'd say the DLC is more focused on the pre-amble of how Mythra wound up as Pyra locked away in the ship beneath the cloud sea. Your points about Jin, even to me, as a player who played all the content thoroughly, still ring true, so rest easy knowing your points are no less salient despite not yet having done the expansion. If you enjoyed 2 at all though, would still recommend for simple enjoyment purposes :) Furthermore, would love to hear your thoughts on 3 maybe in a future video like this one!
The ideas behind the XC2 villains are better than the execution for sure. In the end I didn't really end up caring too much about any of them, but Malos was definitely the most entertaining and Amalthus' death was the most emotional (though you could say he's made out to be the least sympathetic in the end). That leaves Jin as the least compelling of the three for me (though I haven't replayed the main game after completing the Torna DLC, so maybe I'd feel different now).
I know I lack most of the context, but that rebutal from Rex was the opposite of compelling writing to me. To me, the point of the apocalyptic nihilism vs optimism story is that both the hero and the antagonist have comparable experiences, but the hero finds the strength/motivation to not succumb to cynicysm and nihilism. It is the kind of story that helps you keep going in the very chaotic and uncertain real word, the line "life's actually pretty alright" is shit fuel. Can't even warm your tea on that shit.
Without the context of what actually happens in the story, i can see why you might think that but there are multiple scenes that flesh out why rex is like that and the story actually does do what you said would be compelling writing. Sadly, the video doesnt really give any insight or any counter arguments to his statements. Xenoblade 2 is still heralded as having the best story (and villains) out of the 3 games by the majority of xenobalde fans and thats for a reason.
@@HouseGhost1 I mean the antagonists' stories do sound compelling so I can believe it. But I can also see Rex being so agravatingly dumb that I'd just dislike him more with context and that would make me hate his lackluster retort even more, which is what I think might have happened with Ratatoskr. I imagine this scene is many hours into the game and if Rex's characterisation doesn't work for you, this scene also won't work.
Oh my god, WHAT? I hadn't seen that picture of Rex yet (and so I don't know the context yet) but man, that makes the character feel so much worse. That's hilariously stupid. I never really liked the "take the good with the bad" rebuttal in any story because it feels like a cop-out that doesn't engage with the villain's view point at all. It's a bad rebuttal in general, but worse if you were ever close to caring about the villain's reasons at all - and sometimes it might even make you resent the protagonist instead, which I don't think was the point here.
I've never touched any of these games, and if anything, aesthetically, Chronicles X is the one I'd likely pick to try first. That said, it was surprising being reminded how common the (let's call it) villainous weltschmerz trope is and how we seem to be quite ravenous for stories shaped by such molds. I daresay that's a video I'd see Ratatoskr making, but I won't know since I'm unsubscribing once this comment is posted.
@@skylandersfan6954 I would disagree but that’s my opinion. I recently started XC3 and it’s already holding its own much better than XC2 and i’m only about 10 hrs in.
As someone who hasn't yet played fromsoft games or any xenoblade games past 1 and X. Where does X lie in the status of black sheep and if it has a from soft comparison
@@goroakechi6126 I know it's irrelevant that's why as a non fromsoft player what would it be compared to if the xenoblade series has the same standings as the dark souls game. I just want to overdrive with Sawano music again is that too much to ask
I have been told that a lot of my complaints were addressed through the dlc. Sadly I did not play it, but if it does elaborate well on the villains then it really should have been in the main game.
Fun fact it was planned to be a part of the main game but ended up being scrapped and turned into the dlc for reasons I don’t think we know
It absolutely should have been in the main game. It made a world of difference when rewatching the story cutscenes after playing through Torna. I know it's hard finding time with so many games coming out, but the Torna DLC is really beautiful and required playing.
See 2 dlc's isn't just a cut out content typa thing it was always meant to be in the main game but if you would do some research on the development history on the game you'd see how it didn't happen. Xbc2 was a rushed switch release title so that's why the game being rushed in some areas is really apparent.
I agree with most of your praise, especially regarding Almalthus, I 100% disagree with a lot of your complaints. Especially regarding Jin, who is one of my favorite villains of all time, even before the DLC expansion (which is massive and adds a lot to his character, considering him and Lora are the main protagonists of that). Original intention of the expansion was that it would be inbetween chapter 7 and chapter 8 of the main game, but they ran out of time in the final year of development and decided to make it part of the expansion pass instead. They also made it a standalone release as well because it's 10-30 hours long.
Also, I think you have a misunderstanding of Rex's character, because while initially presented as a bumbling protagonist who is naive, and to a point he certainly is, and is definitely awful with words and understanding feelings intuitively ("dense" protagonist trope). His twist on that archetype is that he actually is worldly and experienced. He does full time contracting. He's traveled to many places in the Cloud Sea. He left his village/orphan family not at the start of his adventure, but several years ago. He rarely simply rebutts villains philosophy/speeches, but instead tries to understand them and how they got that way. He is not quick to jump to conclusions (like many hot blooded protagonists of his archetype) but instead is very empathetic and considerate. He is a subversion of his typical archetype, and the specific dialogue of his that you quoted is still trying to interpret him as the standard of the archetype instead of as the subversion of it that he actually is. As for the Xenoblade 3 picture, He's a chad, he's earned it, based optimism wins again.The tone of that criticism is only one step away from an incel talking point: Instead of complaining "oh, you have a significant other, that makes you disqualified to understand my plight" it is "oh, you have multiple significant others, that makes you disqualified to understand their plights". Normally your videos stick to logical and rational talking points, but I think this was an instance where you might have let something a bit more vulnerable slip out to be seen.
Anyway, keep up the good work with your videos. I highly encourage Torna expansion if you want the exact things you are complaining about to be elaborated upon and addressed (Almalthus will still get the most compelling stuff for you, I think). I also recommend that if you ever replay or rewatch cutscenes of base game 2, that you try reading Rex's character outside the confines of the archetype he seemingly represents at first, but I strongly believe that he isn't the archetype played straight, but a subversion, and that your understanding and appreciation of his character will deepen by reading him beyond the surface level archetype he represents.
You absolutely MUST play the dlc
It's important to know that the original plan for the story was to put the Torna prequel expansion after chapter 7 of the main game. When they decided to have DLC they basically took the Torna scenario and expanded it to fill the 20-30 hour runtime.
It is unfortunate that they did it this way for reasons like this video, where many people don't end up getting the whole intended story even though they finished the main game.
That had to do with the fact that they ended up with a bunch of ideas and new technology that they wanted to try. The visual performance of Torna is significantly better than the main game, and the changes to the combat is incredible. This resulted in Xenoblade 3 being as incredible as it is.
I personally found Jin to be the best of the three villains. True, the whole thing of "my gf died so now I'll destroy the world" is dumb, but to me, that was just the catalyst. His real hatred for man came from watching his blades be subjugated for hundreds of years by the church, and any attempt at peaceful coexistence was snuffed out by amalthous. That, combined with ancient knowledge about how the architects home was destroyed by war, and him discovering the diary where he learns about wars in the past, is what actually drives him to be the villain he is. The death of his loved one breaks him and makes him susceptible to malos' words, but it's not his sole motivation.
Thank you!
The mini reviews will continue until Elden Ring announces DLC. LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO FROM SOFTWARE.
We expect a video a day until Dec. 8th.
Love this video. How about a rant on Pyra/Mythra?
I guess it's over
We’re so back
I’m gonna have to stop you there.
Jin is the best written character in the game. And that’s excluding Torna.
The thing is, Lora doesn’t need to be elaborated on as a character. She represents the ideal of a driver, at least in base game. Both Jin and Malos represent a problem with the driver/blade system. Malos is the copying of the first driver’s desires, and Jin is the loss of a blade’s memories.
Jin became immortal so that Lora would never be forgotten. He keeps her in an ice crystal on the Marsanes. And he wandered 500 years completely alone. By staying isolated, Jin only saw the worst of Alrest; the persecution, the corruption, and most importantly, Amalthus’s rise to power. The closest thing he had to a sister was brainwashed, and made the emblem of Indol. And he can’t do anything. He’s still just one person, one who’s powers are extremely limited in comparison to all of Alrest, and even then, killing Amalthus fixes nothing in his eyes. So when Malos gives him an opportunity, he takes it without hesitation.
On top of that, Jin wants to die. But he owed it to Lora to stay alive for her.
Meanwhile, Nia and Rex both serve as counters to his ideology. Nia’s is obvious, she’s the other main flesh eater, and was persecuted for it as well. But, instead of letting that fear overtake her, she overcame it to see a better day because of the people around her who cared for her no matter what. And as for Rex…that conversation you showed? Not the real rebuttal.
This is, in a cutscene after the Jin fight;
“Who will stop the inevitable?”
“Isn’t that why you blades exist? And when I’m not around to stand by you in that effort, someone else will! That’s right! When a person dies, that’s it for them. But their thoughts, and memories, will always be passed on to someone else. Isn’t that the same with you blades? Your past selves get passed down to someone else to become your new selves… isn’t that how you’ve always lived? We’re no different!”
Rex fully understands why the cycle of drivers and blades exists; so that, even when a driver passes on, and a blade loses their memory, the memories of themselves is carried on by the next cycle, interpreted and given fresh perspective for improvement. The infection of Alrest is not its cycle of existence, but it’s own history, and those willing to exploit it.
Jin doesn’t understand that his suffering is not indicative of the world and its failures. It’s caused by one man.
When he gets Justice on in the end, he smiles for the first time in 500 years.
actually good UA-cam comment
I strongly agree
He still was throwing a fit over the death over someone the player can't and doesn't care about, making what he is doing an overreaction to something everyone in the world has to face.
@@blumiu2426 thats what torna is for. Since i played torna after chapter 6 i had no complaints.
@Kantrel 7
Jin is literally nothing like Noah. He lost a lot more than Lora. Everyone he knew and cared about was genocided, enslaved, and experimented on. His rights as a person were ripped away from him. Mikhail was a human kid with a good heart. And what did he become in hands of the people? A lab rat denied of his very humanity and rights like the blades themselves. For Jin, it’s watching your adoptive son be thrown into the dumps of being subhuman.
Spend 5 minutes on r/Xenoblade_Chronicles and you will know X is the black sheep of the franchise. You will see posts and fanart for 1, 2, and 3, but nothing about X, except the occasional comment in a post about 1, 2, or 3 begging for a Switch port.
Yeah but it's a nice black sheep
Don't forget the best part about the X fanbase: the random dude rotating an image of murderess 5 degrees and posting it every week until news on X2 is released.
In all seriousness, I hated what they did with X at first, but after getting it running on CEMU and playing through it where the text was actually legible, I really enjoyed it. I wish the main story was handled a bit better, but the sidequests and worldbuilding are phenomenal.
@@scubajho Best exploration in the series so far.
story of X was ass but on exploration lvl it was the best imo. might be subjective but for me the different landscapes look better than in any other xenoblade game
@@sasorioho I wouldn't say the story for X was bad. The Shyamalan twists at the end had me going. It was absolutely weaker than it could have been, but someone higher up told the devs it had to have a player avatar and online functions, so they had to scrap the original story and rush to finish to accommodate that demand. The remnants of that original story are there, but the player character not being someone memorable to connect with, like Shulk, really hurt the story. At the same time, at least they determined that, if they couldn't prioritize the story, then they'd go with the world and the side missions instead. Can't say that enough. Hope's sidequest almost got me as bad as Xenoblade 3's most infamous bit. It's almost the test run for what the emotional manipulation they pull in XC3.
Wait a minute, goofy ass Rex got the harem ending? Well color me surprised.
i dont think that's a "tiny spoiler from xb3" at all, but thankfully I've already completed it.
Yeah, there was nothing "tiny" about that spoiler, unless that line was supposed to be a joke about babies being tiny. I actually HAVEN'T completed it, (the game is crazy long) but am almost there, and took "very tiny" to mean "something other than a thing that only gets revealed at the very end of the game." Now, I had already been spoiled on this in very general terms, because people don't know when to shut up, but seeing the actual image, which I hadn't seen yet, was definitely a little annoying. But just because shippers online are assholes who can't stop throwing their ships in everybody's face doesn't mean Ratatoskr should be an asshole, too. That spoiler warning definitely shouldn't have had a "it's super tiny, really, you don't need to worry about it, honest" caveat added to it.
@@brianlinden3042 i found the reveal in xb3 to be pretty significant as i was waiting to hear anything about post-xb2. just my personal reasons; if i had been spoiled by this video i wouldve been upset
@@Nora-rb6tr Yeah, practically the whole POINT of Xenoblade 3 is nostalgia for the first two. (I don't mean that as a criticism, either; it used that nostalgia effectively to accentuate the mystery of the setting without it wearing out its welcome.) In a story that leans into nostalgia for the first two in such a major way, showing off one of the few explicit details we get about what happened in the aftermath of one of them is a pretty damn major spoiler.
The Torna story expansion does a pretty good job of showing us the kind of person Lora was. She's a pretty cool person, and I can understand why Jin would be absolutely devastated after losing her. And yet, as odd as this sounds, it doesn't endear me to him much more than the base game did. It definitely adds for sure, but it also makes it a lot harder to believe his and Malos' whole dynamic, considering the whole fall of Torna and stuff.
If you ask me, Mythra gained the most from that DLC. I didn't care about her at all in the base game, but seeing the conclusion of the story expansion really put a lot of her behavior into perspective. I still think she could've been written better, but now I can say that knowing what makes her compelling.
"Jin is throwing a hissy fit for something we all go through."
No, because at least we get to cherish the memories. At least we get to move on. At least we get to grow from the experience. BLADES DON'T GET THAT. It's something that Rex has to teach him after their fight.
"Rex never experiences what the antagonists experience."
Yes. So?
The thing about Rex is that he was never suppose to. Rex is different from everyone else in Alrest because he grew up in the Leftherian Arcapehlego. Far far away from strife and the depression that haunts every other person.
In the cutscene in Elysium, Rex has to face everyone else's worries and fears and fails BECAUSE he doesn't understand them. He doesn't know what to do to solve it other than find Elysium.
Rex, nor anyone else, is suppose to solve human suffering. He is there to show hope for the future that everyone else loses in their depression. Especially a 500 year long one.
How the hell can you ever sympathetize with people who have lived for 500+ years? How the hell can you condense 500 years of suffering into a kid or young adult?
Your problem is that it didn't conform to the trope. The trope essentially being that the villain is similar to the hero.
He isn't, by the way. Part of the story is Rex not even realizing Prya and Mythra's suffering until the very end.
He can't relate to that, instead he clings to that glimmer of hope that they have for the future. The hope that puts them at odds with Malos and Jin.
"Look at Rex with his harem. Wah wah wah."
Greatest laugh I had all year. I will always love seeing people seethe over a hero getting exactly what he deserves.
Good friends and extraordinary family.
well said,
i always said that rex Story was ultimatly one of growing up, of learning to understand people and suffering, and yet still clinging on on that child like innocence of hope for a better future, that so many people loose when they grow up, thats why he is devestated when Pyra decides to sacrifice herself to let them escape before morytha thats why he breaks down and BEGS everyone to help him at the very end when Pneuma decides to stay behind as well.
People sacrificng themself for him(them) is rexs suffering, they are all temporary, but thats the point as well, rex is meant to retain his childlike hope, and only by not leaving them behind(his hope of a better morrow) was he able to actually return to them bootha t morytha and near the true elysium.
Even him awakening the true blade plays into that imo, He isnt concerned about that "what could be " in the future, he is concerned about the "how to make it better".
Adam was similiar in that regard, but being a prince, he was to close to people who likely sucumbed to power, who sceemed to gain more of it, he saw the depths of human malice (at least its likely, once again he is royalty, and his uncel isnt really, nice to him). Even if Adam had good intention in the end he is concerned about what could go wrong, and not what coudl go right even if hsi carefree attitude makes you beleive else.
Thats likely why Adam never told anyone where he went, and why only one of leftherian blood/upbringing could open the seals on the aegis. Because only someone brought up at this remote place far away from strife of nations could someone be raised to be truely hopefull for the future and not assume the worst.
chadosaurus rex stole the scene from noah and mio with ease there
The entire point of Rex is that he is naive. It's not his flaw, it's the reason for his strength. We are even told that in-game by Zeke in one of the heart to hearts, that if Rex's life would've been otherwise, if he weren't that naive, then he wouldn't have the strength of will to go on this against-all-odds journey.
To add to that, in the one time he kinda experienced failure - when Pyra was taken by Malos - he went into complete shock, became detached from reality, and had to literally be slapped on his face to get a grip on himself. The game shows us that he's inexperienced with dealing with pain and failure.
I think all this actually makes him a great character. We the players aren't meant to sympathize with him, we only spectate him (much like Zeke and Morag, the "adults" of the party). We are supposed to feel like the broken-spirited grown-ups that we are. But it's through him that we get to remember that faint glimpse of being naive and full of hope. There's a strong magic in that feeling.
Also, something that is very subtle is that he has this set of rules that he follows to a T without really knowing why or how bring them to true fruition ( as when he leaves Pyra crying alone ) and part of his arc is to really integrate these rules into his own moral code without blindly following them.
Also Malos, his arc is really "obscure" because to really appreciate it one must first consider the way that Drivers and Blades interact with each other, and how Amalthus drives Malos's actions right from the start.
One can make the argument that it's "badly written" but, in this case, the counterargument can be made that this kind of "under the hood" storytelling isn't exactly common.
Rex has always suffered he’s not Naive his whole life was constant suffering from being a Salvager and it’s made worse from meeting Pyra
> rex doesn't experience what jin went through
my brother in christ did you miss the part where Rex's parents were dead when he was a toddler and he literally had to work as a little kid to support his entire village by himself? he never got easy in life, he had to work just for his village to get by, the whole point of Rex's character is that he SHOULD be just as nihilistic as the rest of the world, that he should succumb to what the world tells him as such but he doesn't, he pushes through in a world where, in case you missed it, EVERYONE is suffering, everyone is just waiting for the inevitable end when the titans all die and there is no land left, Rex pushes against that mindset because living with hope for a better future is better than to just lay your head down, say it doesn't matter and wait for the inevitable end, and Rex isn't a goddamn moron, he's aware of how the world works, he isn't just saying "hope" nonsense with nothing to back up, he actively works to find solutions
also even if you refused to bring up torna dlc, the base game Jin isn't just "sad because Lora died" it's the whole world that he sees an issue with, how blades can do nothing but forget about the lives they had and forget their bonds, Jin couldn't handle it anymore, and that's a point made through the whole game, and beyond all that, Jin simply wanted to die for 500 years, Malos gave him something to live by and he took his hand, even without the final cutscene, it isn't difficult to tell that they have appreciation for each other, the final cutscene just giving one final scene of how it all started between them, saying he is a nothing character because there weren't enough cutscenes with Lora is not something I can't agree with because that is not the point
also also about the "harem" bit at the end, not only that is literally a poly relationship with Nia that you can get by watching the new game plus title screen which show what the intent is to be, but also do you WANT rex to be suffering after the events of 2? did you miss how pyra and Mythra were suicidal and only wanted to die? now they are happy with a happy family because they found the happiness they always seeked yet you twist this into being a "rex is a bastard because he has a family now so he can't speak about seeking hope"
Rex is not Hopeful or Optimistic he’s a realist he knows the world sucks but doesn’t act like a jerk about it he’s like Everyone else he’s just a normal nihilistic guy but just doesnt show it because why would he
I strongly disagree, I actually find XC2's villains to be its biggest strength.
The thing about Jin is that people somehow seem to think that Lora's death is the be all and end all of his motivations, when that isn't the case at all. Heck, the first time Rex asked him why he does what he does Jin didn't mention Lora at all. Instead he brings up the fact that Blades lose all memories upon returning to their core, and are unable to pass down their memories or stories to others personally. That combined with the fact that the Preatorium has complete control over Blade distribution, (legally, anyway,) prevents Blades from being able to form their own culture.
Jin also brings up how Blades are often treated as mere tools or weapons by most nations and people of Alrest. And the Blades are unable to rise against this due to the fact that both their lives and their values are tied to that of their Drivers. They have no choice but to go along with it all. That's the real reason Jin is motivated to kill the Architect and end the world, he views it as completely unjust and beyond repair, thus not worth living. Lora's death impacted him for sure, but it was not the sole reason for his mental descent.
We have to remember that Jin didn't immediately start going on a rampage after Lora died. He was completely lost after it happened, having no idea what to do. He just wandered more or less aimlessly for a few hundred years, seeing the worst humanity had to offer in the meantime. It wasn't until Malos "showed him a path" an undetermined amount of time before the game starts that he truly started walking his dark road.
Also, Rex hasn't experienced shit? Sorry did we play the same game? He lost both his parents when he was very young, and grew up as an orphan in a village that was not particularly well off. He started working as a salvager at the age of 10 so he could send money home in the hopes that his adoptive siblings can be sent to school and have a better life. He experiences death firsthand by Jin's own hand. He loses Vandham who he straight up says he viewed as a father. And he's seen some of the worst humanity has to offer on his journey. I think he's perfectly qualified to give a rebuttal here.
Exactly, perfect comment
Rex is just a Gary stu with spongebob optimism. He ruins the game with his character. He's so obnoxious that I'm already repulsed by him indiscriminately.
Seeing as you already addressed your feelings on the DLC in a separate comment, I’ll spare you my thoughts in that regard beyond a simple encouragement to play it if you ever have the chance. I have a feeling that it would do well to turn your perspective on the game around.
That being said, the two main problems I have with your critique are your assessment of Jin’s motivation as well as Rex’s ability to understand the cruelty of Alrest.
Yes, Jin is a character who was set on his path by the death of Lora, and yes, death is something that most people need to deal with within their lifespans, but the simple fact of death is only part of it. Your assessment ignores how the nature of being a blade informs his feelings about death. The fact that blades are denied the ability to mourn and remember their loved ones without committing a gruesome atrocity against said loved ones, the fact that simply wanting to continue living with the memory of those you lost is enough to have you hunted down and killed, compounded with Lora’s untimely murder is what sends him on his downward spiral, not her death alone. By the time he is found by Malos, the embodiment of pure Nihilism, he is a broken man, and one whose raw emotions about the world could be easily reinforced and manipulated.
In regards to Rex, it is explained at multiple points during the game that he is very well aware of what the world is capable of, and that his actions are made in acceptance of those truths, but the belief that they can be overcome. As a child, Rex’s parents were refugees who were ultimately killed in the crossfire of war, none to dissimilar to how Amalthus was orphaned. Rex grows up in the relatively impoverished land of Fonsett, a place that has been shaped by the atrocities of the Aegis war (originally established by the original Aegis Driver, Addam Origo), being home to many refugees and orphans similar to Rex. Contrary to Amalthus, Rex chooses to use his background and that of those around him as evidence that life and prosperity can exist despite how harsh reality can be, rather than simple evidence of life’s cruelty. As you said, he may not be very articulate, but to argue that he has no right to hold an opinion on the state of the world because of his living status after said issues have been resolved is a little absurd to me.
Despite the issues I have with your critique, I still understand your opinion. I believe that XC2, despite its flaws, is a very misunderstood game. Hopefully you’ll play the Torna expansion at some point in the future, as I truly do believe that it does wonders for the base game in regards to world building and character elaboration (regardless of your feelings on how it should have been handled in the base game).
1. tbf Jin didn't want to live, he was doing it for Lora. Malos even states "Words can be a curse". the sole reason why jin is in depression is because of Lora's death and her wish for him to continue.
2. no, Rex parents died as they were reaching Fonsett, and only the mother is shown. not only that, he's been blessed far more than Jin, Amalthus and Malos. Not only was he taken cared and loved when growing up, he was taught by guidance, guidance from gramps and multiple people in his life. something that Amalthus sought on his way to Elysium, something that Jin needed and something that Malos gained in the wrong way. As poor as Fonsett is, it is not all scraps and trades. people farm there, they play and live there. as evident by the old grown ups still living in Fonsett, preparing the future generations (like Rex) to go outside of the nest and live their own lives.
Rex will never truly understand Jin or Amalthus (maybe malos since he has an aegis but not by much). let's take other games as an example
Shulk refutes Egil's actions and both of them have suffered the same experience and pain to understand each other.
Sonic and Shadow, although Sonic has never lost a loved one like Shadow has or has any idea what it feels to be a created life form, sonic doesn't refute shadow's perspective, but rather he acknowledges it, which is why he let's shadow take decisions he might not agree with (like killing yourself to save the world). and a more direct example would be Omega and Shadow, both born from the machinations of Eggman yet both are completely different, Shadow refuting Omega's perspective on how wasteful it is to be a creation from eggman, giving him a reason that there might be more to life than killing the doctor.
they really should've delayed teh game put torna in base, that way, there wouldn't be such problems
@@AlejandroRodriguez-cy8ee Nowhere did I state that Rex was capable of understanding Malos or Jin; that wasn’t my point. My point was a simple refutation of the idea that Rex is somehow ignorant or unaffected by the state of Alrest. You are correct in the idea that he cannot understand them, but at the same time, that’s what makes Rex a compelling subversion of the hopeful protagonist trope.
Most protagonists that fall into that archetype are narrow-minded and entirely focused on contradicting or disproving the viewpoints of those that oppose them. Rex, I’m the other hand, is extremely open to the ideas of others and is punished at multiple points throughout the game when he is unable to accept their beliefs. He knows that he can never feel the pain they have felt, he’s a 15 year old boy from the most sheltered place in the world, which is why he takes care to hear out and empathize with the people he meets rather than attempting to find commonality. Every party member in XC2 comes from a place of anguish, people who are aimless in where to direct their frustrations about the world. Rex’s character is ultimately about helping others to orient their frustrations towards a positive outcome by hearing them out and showing them a path, rather than trying to simply convince them of their wrongdoing or his outlook through hot-headed diatribes. He simply wants people to direct themselves towards the happiness they want to find in the world, because that’s the gift that his parents afforded him by bringing him to fonsett.
That isn’t to say his methods are faultless, or that he doesn’t require any growth when he sets out on his adventure. As I stated before, he is punished many times throughout the game for his ignorance and initial refusal to accept any methods beyond the perpetual hope he strives to uphold. His acceptance of Jin and Pneuma’s sacrifice are the climaxes of that arc for him, and are what ultimately ties together the philosophy Rex represents
what this guy said
@@jpswim3693 (I really didn't agree with how Rex wanted to somehow save jin, after all he did, but that's besides the actual point).
1. ...I don't think he tried that with Amalthus, granted he was long lost, but so was Jin. Pretty sure he, along with Nia, convinced Morag and Bridgid that killing or restraining the Aegis is wrong. and while Zeke was exiled so he can grow in wisdom, he wasn't really in a wrong place by the time Zeke met Rex (given his luck is abysmal, they seem pretty fine before even meeting rex) and Morag wasn't anguishing at all, she was just doing her duty, her anguish is locked behind a quest and a heart to heart, the sibling type of anguish. Also I TOTALLY agree on that 15 year old sheltered thing......sadly the game does not agree with the fact that he's a 15 year old sheltered boy as evidenced in Chapter 6, where rex is depressed and totally out of it due to his loss with Jin and Nia and Bridgid proceed to berate him for giving up and for not knowing that Pyra was suffering in silence and wanted to SUDOKU herself (because.....berating a 15 year old for not knowing how to identify and notice suicidal depressed people is......normal?? and the right way to do it??? with friends like those, who need enemies?).
also didn't he try to find common ground with Jin at the start of Chapter 7? and by the team his friends found him and saw jin and got ready to attack them, Rex was about to stop them??
2. i don't think he had any choice but to accept it. And also pretty sure Rex and Pneuma also had no choice but to accept Jin's sacrifice since SOMEHOW Amalthus KO'd Pneuma (the blade with the ability to bend reality and have the power of imagination....was knocked out by a tentacle. heck EVEN HAZE's power was about to overwhelm and control Pneuma). So is it really acceptance when Rex had no options to do or say anything about the matter?
@@AlejandroRodriguez-cy8ee for 1, I'd honestly say they were more annoyed with the fact that he was being so accepting of it as the only outcome, and him saying that he wasn't ever meant to be a driver and all that. It was more of a reaction to seeing their leader figure, regardless of his age(perhaps even forgetting his age due to how he has handled things sinse they had met him. Think the Toph situation, where the group completely forgets about weak spots she possesses due to her otherwise competency. Rex is noted for being exceedingly mature for his age, so seeing him acting more like a 15YO would, could throw them off), being so depressed.
For 2, I think the reason that Amalthus was so obscenely strong story-wise is because he was absorbing the data from the core crystals, baking him a sort of artificial Aegis who had access to an Aegis and 500 years to dedicate all the resources of Indol to research for his "become god" form, while remaining a good public figure to the majority of alrest.
this is the greatest reaction to the rex photo I’ve ever seen. “THIS BASTARD does not get to say ANYTHING about ANYTHING”
Speaking of Jin feeling undercooked, keep in mind that the DLC (Torna) was supposed to be slotted in just before Morytha, but was cut for being too long, so they made it its own game instead.
The last bit of this video is absolute gold! Incredible. Thank you.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is easily one of my favorite games of all time.
@@RidgerianI care , also He's basedd
@@Ridgeriantotally agree unlike xenogears Xenosaga Xenoblade 1 X and 3 I beat Xenoblade 2 once never touched it again it really is the terrible odd one out of the bunch and
yeah people may say oh but what about Xenoblade 1 and Xenosaga and X THEY HAD FAN SERVICE TO 🤪
Yeah they did but it was more SUDDAL SUBTLE and not just going every F cutscene of HEY LOOK BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS AND BOOBs oh Yeah IN IN YOUR FACE MORE BOOBS
So this is what the creator meant when he said he wanted to do something different huh because he was bored pathetic yeah we get it he honestly should have just came out and said I want to create a very horny game for a younger crowd with a more dumb down characters it’s that simple ugh 😑
And yes Xenoblade 1 and future redeemed are still the best of the series so far
Is this a 10 minute rant about a dude getting way too much bladussy than he actually deserved?
Lol
Rex is a crazy man with balls of steel to fuck three women stronger than him and dive into the deep waters of the cloud sea.
He’s the biggest Chad we will never have again in the Xenoblade series.
I think you're wrong about Rex. He *does* experience what the villains experience.
I don't mind Rex being a bumbling idiot without a deep philosophy to contrast the villains throughout the story because that's not what the story was about. Rex started out as an everyman, working to make a living, sending money home when he could. He wasn't destined for greatness until he got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Once he links up with Pyra, it's not some great philosophy that keeps him going, it's his higher aim. Literally, his aim is Elysium, the top of the World Tree, and he aims at it throughout the entire game. That's what drives him forward. It doesn't need intelligence or sophistication, he has an aim that he follows unwaveringly.
That is, until the end of the story, and here is where he experiences what the other villains experience, and it's something that many if not most people experience in their lives. Rex finally achieves his aim and... He finds it empty. It's nothing at all like what he was promised. He was deceived throughout the story, and he takes this *hard*. Suddenly, the world doesn't make sense to him. His happy-go-lucky attitude completely falls apart, and he becomes deeply depressed. So much so that when he's given the chance to spend time with the two women he loves in an idyllic setting, where all he has to worry about, as Dostoyevsky put it, is "eat, drink, and the continuation of the species"... Rex breaks down. He breaks down in tears and asks himself if he went wrong somewhere.
This was Rex's chance to descend into nihilism, to fall into the same pit that Jin and Amalthus fell into. But then the Architect sees this, explains the cycle of the world to Rex, and asks Rex what he will do now. Rex doesn't have Elysium to look up to anymore, but he still has his common sense everyman sensibilities, what makes him a fundamentally good kid, and he replies to Klaus quoting the Salvager's Code that guided him before Elysium: "First have a punch-out, then drink to forget. Once you've forgotten, the friendship's all set." Whereas Jin and Amalthus (and Malos by Amalthus's influence) decided the world was evil and needed to be destroyed after their descent into nihilism, Rex discovers a new appreciation for life, and that the point of life is to make it worth living. As he said earlier in Xenoblade 2, and (spoiler) in Xenoblade 3 to his daughter about why he keeps going, it's to put smiles on people's faces, and that makes it all worth it to him. He cements this perspective when he leaves Klaus with these words: "Thank you for giving us all life." And in that moment, he redeems Klaus's nihilism too.
When im in a bad opinion competition and my opponent is you 😨
First thing is first, I wrote this whole comment out earlier and UA-cam refused to let me post it, most likely due to the size of the comment (I have a lot to say, and not all of it is even covered here). So I copied it and came back to post it later cause I really wanted to contribute to the discussion. As such parts of this comment will perhaps be irrelevant due to the ongoing discussion, and it will be split into parts which can be viewed in the replies, hopefully they all get posted correctly.
Full disclosure, I vehemently disagree with pretty much everything in this video, but no I won't unsub because you're well articulated and I think I understand *how* you came to your conclusions. Also this comment is by no means is all I have to say, but I can't write an entire article down in the comments (though it seems I came plenty close). As others have pointed out, some of the issues you bring up are addressed in the DLC. As you brought up in your comment however, you believe that those things should have been in the base game. I can understand your perspective, you believe everything should be there in a single package, however that is, by its nature, a very closed view. I'm not saying it's wrong or stupid, just narrow-minded, and that kind of thinking has its value. But viewing a single piece of art without context is not going to lead to a full understanding, particularly when the artist elaborates on their art. And it may be important to note that the story of the DLC was already conceptualized before the release of the game, so the artist isn't merely trying to patch holes retroactively, but expand your understanding of the story with context that the artist had, but you did not (though there are many things in the DLC that are implied in the base game's story). However, putting aside the DLC, I would argue your points are still weak mainly because you seem very focused on certain scenes without recognizing the significance of others. I can totally understand this, most who play the game latch onto specific scenes, and forget about others that are *extremely* important, I've been guilty of that.
Starting with Jin, the framework with which you're viewing Jin is fundamentally degrading, you describe him as having a "world destroying hissy-fit," this is actually something I see a *ton* of in discussion of 2. Labeling characters (naive Rex), degrading them (hissy-fit), simplifying them (Jin is just doing this because of his past), not taking them seriously or looking at them holistically (he has a harem and therefore his perspective is entirely invalid). I'm curious why this is so commonplace in discussion of the game, perhaps because the comedy is not meant to be taken seriously, it signals to people that the tragedy isn't meant to be taken seriously? I don't know. Your argument is that we aren't shown Jin's past enough to sympathize with him in the present, but who Jin *was* isn't the entirety of his character, he has a past and a present. Who he was, was someone seeking vengeance for the tragedy he experienced. But Jin isn't merely seeking vengeance in the present he is seeking a point to his life, when his life seems entirely devoid of it. He focuses on vengeance then realizes there's no purpose to be found there, so then he seeks for something more. This is made clear several times throughout the game. One instance is the cutscene where Jin and Malos are having a conversation regarding whether they are in control of their fates and what their similarities or differences to humanity are. But the cutscene that makes this the most clear is the final fight against Malos. There are a ton of details in the final cutscenes, particularly the final battle that many people miss. In the final fight, Rex makes several arguments (contrary to your view of him which I'll get into later), and one of the points he brings up is that Jin truly wanted to create a connection, a relationship, with Malos. And that's not all, Jin is also afraid of the future, specifically that the future will simply reflect the past with no meaningful change. This is made clear in the final fight between Rex and Jin where Jin makes the argument that humanity will turn Elysium into another Morytha, and Rex's response is that the blade's responsibility is to stop humanity from making those same mistakes. Blades are personifications of past teachings, they are born, they learn, and then they are passed on to the next driver (an allegory for the past being passed on to a new generation). Every one of the main antagonists are driven by many different motivations, Jin included. These are just a couple of Jin's other motivations. It's not all about Lora.
Then you briefly touch on Malos which is such a shame, because he is the best antagonist in the entire series. There is so much to Malos, some of which is clarified in the DLC. Without going into extensive detail on the DLC and speaking broadly (so as to avoid specific spoilers), in the past he was more arrogant, more like Amalthus. But after Malos falls in the aegis war, he is laid low and forced to let go of that arrogance to *some* degree. Amalthus rises after the aegis war and Malos falls after the aegis war, which is part of what leads them to be such different characters. You may question the idea that Malos lets go of his arrogance after the aegis war, considering how he comes across as arrogant for so much of 2. This is where the story of 2 gets complex on another level. One key thing to understand about the antagonists is that they lie about themselves to others as well as themselves (AKA they put up a false persona). For some this is really obvious, Mikhail puts on a romantic act which he only drops close to the end where he gets serious, though you see glimpses beyond the act in certain moments such as the descent into Morytha and one of his conversations with Patroka. Akhos is a more subtle example, he is obviously putting on an act, but its not clear until the end of his story what he is hiding behind it. In the end it's revealed explicitly that Akhos is holding onto a tender psuedo-family relationship with Patroka that he wants to keep safe, and more subtly, Akhos is hiding his *fear* behind the grandiose act he puts on. Malos hides the fact that he is "acting" arrogantly for most of the game, and although you see glimpses past the act, it's really only in the final battle that you get to see past the act fully. In the final battle Malos opens up the cutscene joking and openly saying "I sounded like Akhos for a moment there." Then when he goes over Jin's life and explains that what Jin went through is *one* of the key things driving him to destroy everything, Azurda points out that Jin's life turned out the way it did, in part, because of what Malos did. Malos responds, "That's exactly it, you've gotten smarter with age. I'm a hideous monster far beyond saving." Malos acts arrogant and condescending, but the truth he is hiding is that he *hates* himself, which is a huge difference between him and Amalthus. Amalthus, hates the world, but not humanity or himself. Malos hates everything, himself most of all. One big issue you seem to have with Malos is that he is effected by Amalthus and therefore can't have character agency, but it's far more complicated than that. In one of the most cryptic and difficult to understand interactions in the game, the architect tells Malos, "Do as you wish, if you believe that is your role." Malos responds, "Is that choice really "mine?" One of the key things that Malos spends the entire game questioning. The architect responds, "...It is a choice you made together." And Malos responds, "Good Answer." This is somewhat vague, but it seems that the architect is alluding that Malos played a role in the choices he made, his choices are effected by others sure, but he is fundamentally his own person who can make his own decisions. Malos has his own agency, which is part of the reason he hates himself, he chose this path. That is why he finds it a good answer, it assures him that he is correct in more ways then one.
You give a pretty good summary of Amalthus there are some things you missed, but I'm going to focus more on the main issue you take with Amalthus and the other antagonists. The main issue you seem to have is that for a large part of the story you don't care about the antagonists. This seems to be your main issue, but you don't seem to elaborate on it very much. Why exactly didn't you care about the antagonists? It seems that you think that the story took too long to introduce key elements of their backstory, and didn't spend enough time exploring their backstory. This may be the source of the issue, what you seem to want is more backstory and earlier, but what I don't think you quite realize is that there are so many scenes in the present that are focused on elaborating and fleshing out the antagonists. You seem really focused on their past motives, and not focused enough on who they *are* in the present, which partly involves new motives. Too much focus on the past and not enough on the present. It's difficult for me to mount a counter-position though because you aren't specific enough as to why you didn't find them compelling for most of the story. What exactly do you feel is missing? Perhaps an unfair question to ask, as it seems difficult to answer, but I'll pose it nonetheless because I'm curious.
As for Rex, spicy take, he's my favorite character in the series with Malos 2nd and Mythra 3rd. Perhaps a spicier take, Rex isn't stupid *at all*, he's naive and there is a *world* of difference. Rex doesn't know things, that doesn't mean he can't learn them. This is emphasized so many times throughout the game, and as he gets further into the game he learns more and becomes less naive. The scene you showed of Rex, is an example of his naivete, which he later overcomes. What he says is, "Life's about taking the good with the bad, so yea I like people." I agree this is a *trash* argument, but as is often the case, Rex has the right instinct. Rex knows that the existence of humanity is a net good, but he can't nail down a good argument for that...right then. But later in the story he overcomes the naivete you showcase in that very scene. After the scene you showed, he enters Elysium, gets called into the bowels of the church and is shown his greatest fears. That entire scene isn't just about his fears but also his doubts and guilt. It is in that scene that he is reminded of just how many risks were taken and how many sacrifices were made to achieve what they have on their journey, and he realizes that the good, isn't just good, it's bittersweet. At the very end of that scene he breaks down confused as to whether their journey was worth it, he doubts the value of the good they've done because of all the bad that it came with. You show Rex coming to a simple and unsatisfactory conclusion, and wrongly assumed that was it, it wasn't, he kept going and kept learning. In the very cutscene that you reference Zeke points out a flaw in Rex's reasoning, what if someone hates themselves. So Rex learns that the argument he put forth before is flawed, so what argument does he come up with to replace it? This is shown in the final battle. There is a *ton* of dialogue leading up to and foreshadowing this moment, but this entire comment is already way too long so I'll skip to the end. In the final battle Malos asks Rex, "Who do you think you're doing this for?!" And Rex's response is multifaceted, "I'm doing it...for myself. If it helps put smiles on other people's faces...Helps them live their lives together...Then that's my role in this world!" Many may assume because of the first line, that this is an admittance of selfishness but it's more complicated then that. If this is an admittance of selfishness, then why are his goals entirely selfless, to help put smiles on *other* people's faces and help *them* live *their* lives together. Earlier in Rex's conversation with the architect, the architect says, "What should people live for? Who should they live for? They live for themselves. To harbor desires and struggle to realize them - that is the natural state of man. But I did not think that was good enough." And to clarify Rex didn't just steal this argument from the architect and make it his motto, as is evidenced by several things. First at the end of his conversation with the architect Rex says, "Our answers matched." And several times close to the end of the game Rex makes reference to, "the answer." So Rex already came to the same conclusion as the architect, perhaps he wasn't quite able to put it into words, but he understood things in the same way the architect came to understand them (this journey of understanding, I think, starts after the spirit crucible elpys). As Rex says to Jin in their final fight, "I think I already know why, but I'd like to check my answer." There is so much leading up to the counterargument Rex uses to defeat Malos in the final fight, and this mistaken argument he makes is one misstep on his journey. It's really unfortunate that you didn't seem to spend time analyzing the final fight scene, since I think you could've learned a lot from that scene, there are so many details packed into that one scene.
I'll leave this comment off with one last thing, I may vehemently disagree, but there's no malice intended, and if that came across I *wholeheartedly* apologize. I'm not mad, I just sincerely want to help people better understand this story because there is a lot more to it than most realize. I don't want to act like I know it all either, I learn new things about the game all the time, each playthrough I do, I recognize things I didn't realize the last time. And I'm not a fanboy, the game has some flaws, though to point them out I'd have to make this comment longer than it already is. The unfortunate thing about covering 2 is that there is so much to discuss, that a short video like this simply can't give a good view of the game, for anyone involved. The game is long for a reason, there is a lot of detail and a lot to spend time thinking about. Even this comment doesn't come close to covering everything I would like to bring up, this is truly a drop in the ocean. I understand you may want everything in a single package, as you alluded to in your comment about the DLC, but art isn't that simple. You can't understand art in a vacuum, even though I myself have wished that it could be so simple.
Technically speaking, a death is not tragic. It’s sad. It’s the circumstances that make a death tragic or not.
The Torna DLC fixes the issue with Jin and a bit with Malos, but that's all in hindsight. If we were shown Torna in the main story as originally intended, it would have worked fine but it was delayed and then locked behind a paywall. Anyone who played before the DLC was released is missing the context there and to have it locked behind a paywall means some people would never get that context.
I have this exact same problem with FF15. The DLC stories for your party shows what happened to them while separated from the party and what they had to go through. But playing through the main game alone means they just show up again with a lot of development and no real explanation.
Not gonna lie, that ending got me good.
Love your takes Ratatoskr, keep being you.
What makes Jin so detestable (at least for me), is that he acts like it's totally okay to murder people just because he was hurt. It doesn't make sense to me that he would become a terrorist, if he could have gone and killed Amalthus, the one who actually hurt him. Instead he lashes out at so many innocents, e.g. Haze, only killing Amalthus when all the weird world tree fight stuff happens.
He killed Haze because she was enslaved to the praetorium and he wanted her to be free. He views slavery as a fate worse than death, and that mindset defines his motivations and actions throughout the game
Haze hated the idea of ever becoming the Blade of Amalthus. Amalthus actively went against her morals, and through dramatic irony, she does end up being his Blade. Haze is the only Blade who forgets her own name. She's literally manipulated by Amalthus so he can abuse her power. Amalthus stole her name and half her core. Jin did not kill Haze because he's a terrorist. He killed her because the Haze he knew would never want to be Fan la Norn. Aside from killing Amalthus, which we see is borderline impossible since he can literally control Blades and Titans, this was the only way Jin could set her free from the "master and slave" system.
I like how all the comments are full on essays telling you you're wrong, even though you're not. 🥴
His point is very subjective though, its easy to prove something wrong when the point is just "I acknowledge this is good writing but I don't care for it," because hes not proving why its bad at all
I believe you oversimplified Jin massively. We do spend time with Lora if you allow the Torna DLC, and Lora's death isn't the sole thing that gave him a chip on his shoulder. He resents the entire system of the world and the stranglehold Indol has on blades and war-power.
I really don’t fucking get it when Jin before Torna showed sympathy for war weapons, titans, blades, Mikhail, Malos, and the genocide of Torna. Lora’s final words to Jin were the most haunting and reflective of XC2’s world.
Literally, only N and Noah are actually this one-note and shitty. No amount of dlc will save their poorly written asses and their poorly written waifus. They’re literally worse Jin without any of the other flavors Jin had to resent reincarnation, war, and humanity.
I also think he grossly oversimplified the villains here. I made a comment going over my thoughts on each extensively, but yeah, Lora's death is honestly one of the smaller bullet points on Jin's list for doing what he does. Lora is a "reminder," not a reason.
Xenoblade 2 kicks ass. I love it. I also love Dark Souls II. I also love Zelda II.
It’s good to be a video game enjoyer.
Actually legitimately based
I know there's another thread of comments talking about this but I just want to emphasize the point that I think you heavily underhanded that spoiler warning for XB3. If I'd seen what you shown before watching the cutscenes I know I would've have been upset. I can't imagine what someone else like me would've felt like if they'd played through the 120 hours of XB2 and 3.
I'm also curious what your general opinion is of some of the comments bellow. I think a lot of them bring up some good points about Jin and Rex and I want to know if they've changed your perception of them. To iterate what I'm talking about...
Jin: You understating how the death of someone (and also to an extent oneself through memories) can drive someone to want to destroy the world around them that brought that pain, especially when given the avenue to do so. That avenue being Malos as well as Jin's new found power.
Rex: You saying that Rex hasn't gone through enough pain to have the authority or empathy to rebuke the antagonist's struggles. For me, I was personally agreeing with everything you said until I read some of the comments reminding me that Rex has gone through a lot of pain, it's just that the majority was told rather than shown.
My last question is that I just want to make sure that the last bit about Rex and his harem is a joke? I'm fairly confident that it's a joke but I see a bunch of people in the comments taking it at face value so it makes me think that either I could be wrong or that other people should know it is a joke. While I understand you stating that it's a joke might ruin it in some sense, I think it's important that people understand what's being said when something is being discussed.
I love you videos btw! You're one of the few people on UA-cam that seem like they're looking for disagreement and insight into topics like this. If anyone sees anything that I'm wrong about or disagree with please correct me! I haven't played / seen XB2 in awhile.
I understand some people were emotionally invested in Jin's story, but I think I made it clear through the video that I understand completely what the game was trying to go for. It didn't land for me but I think it would have had the elaboration I mentioned existed. I think it would have landed for a lot of people had we been shown more.
As for Rex, again we would have benefited from more "show don't tell." I don't think it's very effective to just tell me that Rex had a hard past.
Yes the last part was a joke.
@@ratatoskr6324 well, we get him being impailed by jin, vandahm dies right in front of him and we see him taking pyra to his parents grave. Its not like it's never shown that he had a rough life.
@@dragongamer4753 While I think the parent's grave is a good example, I don't want to include Vandahm's death or Jin stabbing Rex. The antagonist's argument is that the world is bad, meanwhile the Vamdahm and Jin events (among others) only happened because of Torna and Amalthus instead of by the general world like it was for them.
Just to be absolutely clear, I'm not trying to say that those events aren't traumatic. The point I'm trying to make in this comment is that to the player I don't think it's communicated enough that Rex has had the general world be as cruel to him as it was for the antagonists outside of their own actions.
@@ratatoskr6324 Thank you for the reply! I probably should have watched the video again after reading the comments to make sure I correctly interpreted your points. Seeing some of the comments make some misinterpretations made me take them as fact. I'm far to impressionable sometimes
Kills Lora
Gets mad that Lora is dead
You're spot on, and the devs also agreed with your first point because the entire Torna DLC gives us much needed insight into Jin. Tbh I have no clue how XB2 fans managed without that DLC. I was one of the weirdos that played DLC First> Main game so some things from the game were spoiled for me but it did make it so that everytime Jin was on screen I was feeling incredibly upset over what happened to my boi.
Edit: Just finished watching video... LOL'd @ your reaction to Gigachad Rex.
Yea.. The resulting bond of Malos and Jin feels like kinda rushed because you kinda lack the proper context of Jin's struggle during the Aegis War and the weight of Lora's death and why Jin is so dead serious in Reaching Elysium...
@@vivid8979 i mean, tbf i kinda see it the opposite way, before we had TGC we coudl speculate how Malos and Jin came to meet, fight and ultimatly join hands..
after TGC Jin just comes across like a moron for joining Malos even if he at that point gave up on humanity. No interaction in TGC made me think "it makes sense for Jin to later join Malos after lora dies" no.. it went "ok, i KNOW you are upset, but.. this dude is LITTERALY the blade of the person who effectivly killed your driver(the preator), taunted you and lora at every opportunity, caused several of loras new found comrades to "die" and basialy was responsible for everyhting shitty that happend to you after givne without him you and lora woudl never have experienced any of this"..
the "added context" made jin less compelling to me and more like a fucking moron
Yes Rex is naive.. but at least i can buy his naivity .. Jin joins malos by circumstance of lost braincells
@SGT_Weber
Jin simply wanted the world to burn at that point in his life and Malos given him a way. It does help that Malos is one of the few people that remembers him and will be shocked on what the heck happened to him, Lora, and the remains of Torna. Mythra practically disappeared the moment Jin needed her the most.
Perfect ending to tie up your video with that harem picture. Maybe Amalthus had a point after all, lol.
I still feel pretty sure that this is secretly Sam Harris's gaming channel.
I haven't played this game but I enjoy listening to your ramblings.
I really like how you articulate your points, and I think based on your own understanding of the characters, that makes sense. However, I think you missed or are turning a blind eye to the nuances of the villains in this game. How they may play off each other thematically, but they have different answers for what brought them to where they are.
Malos is someone who is driven purely by nihilism to his very core, but it's through his own nihilistic realization of who he is as Amalthus's Blade that leads to this self hatred. It's not that Malos thinks the world is awful, it's that all his mind can functionally see the world as, is awful. His entire understanding of living is an instinctive want to watch the world burn, that was passed down to him by Amalthus. Through Jin, Malos sees a way to relate to someone on his level. Jin has reached rock bottom, where Malos feels he himself belongs, and Malos was the one who put him there. It's in this misery that they see a way out through each other. Malos not understanding what attunement could be or how to achieve it, uses Jin's goals as a guide for his own self-worth. He seeks some possible way to help someone through what he was born to do, destroy.
Comparatively, you have Amalthus, who acts as a reflection of Malos and vice versa. Both of these characters work to give us a full picture of both of them. It's what makes them both so compelling, as a question for one is echoed and answered by the other. When Amalthus says at the end of Chapter 9 "If I change I lose everything, I lose my very self. Who in their right mind would accept such a fate?" Amalthus sees all the atrocities he's committed in life as defining qualities of who he is, in the same way that Malos defines himself as his destructive desires. If either were to admit their own faults, they would be accepting that everything they did up until that point is "meaningless." Losing their very selves and being crushed under the weight of existentialism that comes with a loss of self. All Malos has in life is this, in the same way that Amalthus feels his impact on the world, through Malos and his own actions, defines who he is. It's this reflection back and forth between, them both that gives us the full picture.
And now with all that said, we get to Jin. Jin is the result of Malos and Amalthus's influence on the world. Someone who is completely broken as Blades are born into a systemically oppressive world that forces them into war and ties them directly to one person. To Jin Blades are enslaved because of humanity, their very existence is to "live for humans, not with them." He feels that the Architect didn't create a fair world for Blades, and despite all of Torna's desires to live in peace with Humans and Blades as one, the world will always return humans to their destructive ways. The destruction Malos caused Jin doesn't make Jin hate him, because to Jin all that Malos is, is defined by Amalthus. He's simply living in the same oppressive system Jin is. To Jin Blades are enslaved, they have no legacy or culture. They have nothing that allows them to live in a world not defined by humans.
Now the answer to all of this, is a goofy salvager boy, who grew up orphaned in a peaceful town untouched by war his entire life. Though Rex has seen the devastation of it, it doesn't define his perspective on the world in the same way every villain does. What Rex offers Jin isn't understanding, it's a new perspective. A perspective that shows Jin that Blades are, if anything, more fundamentally important to the world than humans are. It's their legacy and continuation of each new generation of Blade that allows all life, history, civilization, and culture to grow and prosper. Rex shows Jin that there's a purpose to every life in Ahlrest. That Blades, just as humans, fight to make a mark on the world. The legacy that they pass down doesn't solely exist as humans in Blades, its all of them together at once. It's a codependent perspective rather than the nihilistic one Jin sees.
To me, the villains are some of the best writing in Xenoblade 2, so to see them boiled down like this, I think, really does them a disservice. I feel like I could go on for ages, but here's my mass text wall for anyone who cares to give it a read.
So Mythra being alive for like over 1000 years and a grown women, then to go bang some super young dude is kind of messed up. Nia Smashing Rex is fine but the Pyra/Mythra thing is way too far
Mythra is a blade, not a grown women. Even in Torna, Addam has a parental dynamic with her despite he himself being younger than Lora
I feel like there's this common problem among Xenoblade games (maybe not 1, been a while) where they write a 200 hour epic and then, when it comes time to bring it down to a 60~100 hour game, they cut around the edges of their epic instead of reworking it, leaving massive gaps where the plot used to be.
2 actually suffered the least from this IMO, to me X and 3 are just outright incomplete.
Is the combat better in 3? I’m thinking of getting it (don’t really care about story) I just hope the combat is much better then 2
eh X didnt really suffer as it wasnt designed around the story itself, people just have thew eird obsession and think because its story was simplistic that it was "bad"
2 is more depatable
also the combat in 3 certain felt better then in 2.. but thats also because i fucking hate stutterwalking in 2 and thats gone in 3 so i was obligated to like it
@@weberman173 Whether or not the rest of the game is great (and it's like top 3 for me, so I don't disagree), the main story is absolutely incomplete. So many plot threads just don't go anywhere, and half of them are post-credit scenes...
@@renegadecomic7577 3 combat is a middle ground between 2 and 1/X, without quite being as deep as either. If you want to see big number it's fun, but it can feel tedious with the encounter rate and without stutter stepping, especially if you do side content because you'll inevitably overlevel the game. Still really satisfying to do a big combo, though.
Still, I wouldn't sleep on the story, IMO it's got the best climax in the series. It's just that... Everything between that climax and the ending is on the level of Windwaker's triforce hunt. Really feels like a few chapters are just missing.
@@renegadecomic7577 It's kinda similar to 2, but a little less complicated and the game actually explains it to you. And the menus are a lot faster, and you can save loadouts for the party.
i've already finished the game but i did see that picture like 3 times before i beat xenoblade 3 it's crazy how the xenoblade community is good with that spoiling things but everyone just can't stop showing THAT photo lol. i'm glad it's just more of an easter egg and not a gigantic plot point really.
Au contraire, this video made me like you even more.
Holy frick that ending, I am absolutely dieing that was amazing.😂
a Xenoblade video from you omg awesome
That picture at the end of XC3…when I first laid eyes on it, I had to google it afterwards to make sure I was seeing it correctly. What a really weird choice they made for Rex.
honestly it was pretty obvious he would get together with at least Pyra and Mythra because it was obvious thery were in love and having kids is the logical conclusion for adults. I was more suprised by Nia joining them though, but I like it this way. Also, I dont judge Rex for this decision because he literealy saved all of them and this is still a fantasy world where polygamy seems fine as long as everyone is cool with it lol
@@littleredfox6849 I think the who polygamy thing truly caped off how odd XC2 was. I guess the game warns us early on with Poppy clearly being Tora’s sex doll. And all the other well endowed blades. I’m just glad they moved away from that stuff in XC3.
its an excuse for Mio to exist.
I think you misunderstood Jin. The problem wasn't that Lora died. The problem is that he didn't have much of a choice when it came to his personal connection to her being permanently severed. And this is something that's brought up not only in Jin, Haze, Bridgid, and Pandoria's story, but also in sidequests in the game.
Similarly Lora understood as a mercenary and a driver she would someday die probably. The world she grew up in death was common place and she also lost her only living relative. Her problem is her tie to Jin would be severed.
As a blade he has no choice in this. And that was something he realized when he found his diary of his past life with his previous driver. Despite living a full life full of memories, all of that was gone the second his driver died. There was no sense of self that he could build by the nature of the world and that didn't apply to just him, that applied to all blades. That is why Jin wanted revenge against not only Indol, but the Architect.
A lot of blades in the game stuggled with this. Bridgid kept a diary but had no idea if the events of her past life were even accurate. Haze was fully robbed of her connection to Lora and was forced to serve Amalthus for 500 years in a lobotomized state, Pandoria didn't even mind that giving part of her core crystal to Zeke meant that she would die when he did. That's what she wanted.
And I disagree that the game doesn't tell you this. In the scene where Jin kills Haze he tells you his motivations directly. "Why are we the slaves and you the masters?" Why are blades sentient but have zero control over their own lives and their own destiny. A sidequest for Praxis/Theory even shows you that if a blade disagrees with their driver fundamentally all they can do is choose death for their driver or themselves.
And it's also why he killed Haze who he was extremely close to since she was also a blade Lora had strong ties to. She had no control over her destiny and due to having her core crystal mutilated the only thing fate had in store for her was being a tool of Amalthus until she died. She even said prior to everything going south that she would never want to serve someone as terrible as Amalthus. So if he was simply upset at Lora dying he wouldn't have done this because Haze is also someone he cared for.
This was also emphasized by the fact that even though Lora's death is what started it, that same problem was something he ran into in past lives. This was noted both in his diary and his past life conversations with Gramps. What changed is that he was able to view the world without the lense of his driver coloring it. So he saw the widespread blade oppression, the constant meaningless wars, and the extent humans would go to gain power for themselves even if it leads to their own destruction. That is why he sides with Malos in the main game.
Well said. It's a shame that people would only look at things on a surface-level and not dig deep into it. Downplaying Jin's motivations to Lora dying is just plain stupid when even the base game shows you why he acted the way he did.
@@Libromgeoffrey Yeah a lot of people look at his speech as edgy anime prattle, but he does genuinely mean what he says. However, at that point in the story the player and Rex are intentionally not given the full context. That's why Rex was confused by Jin killing Haze, but Gramps wasn't.
@@24hr-Gaming it was such a good speech too. The line about blades being denied their own culture due to their life cycle reminded me of Albedo's speech about human culture.
How the fuck does anyone look at Jin and think about Noah and N instead?
@@justice8718 Take Jin's last comment in Torna and apply it to what happened with Noah and N. N and M's relationship is a different take on what happened with Jin and Lora. This comparison is also intentional by the devs since a lot of Noah's arts when Lucky Seven is out resembles Jin. Even Jin's move that's referencing Citan is there.
The other important bit is Noah and N can't accept Mio's death. Jin does accept Lora's death. Because he's a blade he fully understands that some day Lora will die. But the part he can't stand is that his life and memories with her would be taken from him when she does because he's a blade. His previous life also ran into that same problem which is why his past self learned how to become a flesh eater and passed that knowledge on in his journal.
these are literately the reasons I LIKE the villains of 2. Also if you want to bash a game for having shit villains, attack Xenoblade 3 because Z is, like you said in the video, not fleshed out enough and not given enough time to have a spotlight really.
this video was fantastic specially the finale lmao
I see Rata out here making videos out of jealousy. But real talk, I think you hit the nail on the head. In my experience, a good story will fail when characters aren't very good, but a bad story can still be enjoyable if the characters are likeable and presented well.
I disagree
In contrast to the complex and absolute ego, the counter is acceptance and the naive. The villans plight is looking for meaning upon meaningless nothingness, and they fail to see the grander picture of life in of itself. Instead they impose a projection of their own reality, their suffering, their hardships. The individual left unchecked will see a world of their own making, doomed to never see past their observations.
The story needs Rex as a contrast for he lacks philosophy.
Xeno 3 has a great scene at the end where N says something along the lines of "I shall show you the eternal pits of my despair," and Noah replies, "that's just sadness."
Within psychology the longer you ruminate on a thought the stronger you codify this into your being.
Villans of Xeno become God's. They become authority. Their realities they hold as thrueth and will bend others to their will.
Again in 3, Z spoke clearly in his defining eternity and the "now" as it is all he has experienced. But the main cast barely undestand his philosophy, going as far to say, "I kinda understand what he's saying". Fresh eyes see past what age holds as absolute.
To have a strong philosophy against a strong philosophy stands to erect the same issue.
What is Rex to do? Become studious? Read Kant?
My favorite part of Rex is that he is some teenager, tackling the ego of eternal beings.
Why is it the stories job to make you care? Why should a story work to empathize villans?
>Yeah he committed genocide, but when he was 5 he spilt his ice cream. Knowing this makes me understand his plight.
The authority is dillusional to begin with, to see through his eyes is wanting to be disillusioned the same way.
Sometimes everyone you've ever known dies, sometimes the soup is a little cold! You take the good with the bad, thank you Rex.
ending was perfect
Edit: The spoiler warning for XB3. It occurs near end of video for those who only want to see XB2 content.
There's a spoiler warning in the video.
Re-watched and you're right. You did warn of that. My bad.
The REAL problem with Xenoblade 2 is that people weren't ready for that level of anime tiddies.
They hired an hentai artist for the character designs!!!!
Good story, bad reader (or gamer). It's totally your problem, and the video description just confirms my thoughts
Well this is a very interesting take that I haven't ever seen before. Not sure how to really respond. This is one of my favorite games of all time and it makes me very upset that so many people have issues with it. I'll admit many of it's faults. Definitely not a perfect game. But this game just hit me on such a powerful emotional level that I can't help but love it. Combined with my favorite OST of all time and one of my favorite battle systems ever.
I can't agree with your take on this game but I guess I see where you're coming from. A lot of my love for the game is emotional rather than logical
I was not at all ready for that at the end lmao
XC2 is definitely a contender for my favourite game of all time and while I don't agree with everything you said in this video I still really loved it. I can definitely see why the villains didn't satisfy you and to me I'd attribute it mostly to the unfortunate development of the game. Monolith was so split between helping many other Nintendo games and there was only something like 40 people plus some outsourcing working on Xenoblade 2. The entirety of the Torna DLC was meant to be part of the vanilla game around chapter 7 ish I believe. If Monolith had a full team and maybe some more time I'm sure the time needed to make you care more about the villains would be made within the game.
Also the last part about Rex not understanding what the villains go through and thus of course he thinks life is great and worth living, well I think this was EVEN WORSE in Xenoblade 3. There's many examples but the one that pissed me off the most was AND BIG SPOILER WARNING HERE FOR XENOBLADE 3. Joran's sacrifice and death scene. The entire game he's treated like this double crossing betrayer who's gone mad and torments his past friends. While he certainly does some pretty horrible things it's when he states in chapter 6 how all he wanted was the approval of the 3 Kevesi party members and they basically just say "lol no you're lying to yourself" and "yeah your pathetic but that's important". The entire party just ignores his whole reason for turning moebius AND EVEN WORSE is that they push him to sacrificing himself AGAIN because clearly they are oh so more important than him. This also becomes even stupider when you take into account the fact that Joran is an obviously cut hero character since he's got full artwork and code in the game alongside empty spaces in the hero roster. None of the party members even his childhood friends in Noah, Lanz and Eunie actually give a fuck outside of the couple times Lanz was little sad for a cutscene or 2.
Xeno games are still masterpieces in my eyes and definitely some of if not my favourite games but they also take things that could be relatively simple to fix and or expand on and just drive them into the ground.
I'd say rex does understand the villains suffering a little bit. (As well as any 15 year old would understand 500 year old depressed guys.) He is so incredibly optimistic and hopeful he trys to get them to see that there is more to this world then simple suffering there is beauty and there will be a tomorrow.
I absolutely grew to despise the Joran tower scene by the end of the game. They showed it REPEATEDLY throughout the story, as if it was this comparable to-let's say-Sephiroth burning down Nibelheim. But it just wasn't that impactful to me as the audience. They damn near showed that tower crashing down on Joran at least 50 times throughout the entire story, and I couldn't agree more: the main characters could still give two shits about Joran. Just the way they wrote the characters and their relationships were offensive to me, a long-time XC fan. It felt ham-fisted, rushed, and down-right uninspired. The real tradegy here is amount of praise XC3 is getting, while it seems like the JRPG community is turning a blind eye to it, because "aT LEasT tHeRe'S no MOrE anImE WiFuS" nonsense. It makes me sick, because XC2 is such a masterpiece, while XC3 couldn't even begin to hold a candle to its predecessor and the feats it was able to achieve.
@@hiotsobo XC3's chapter 6 and 7 are Xenogears disc 2 levels of rushed. Still love both of those games and even those parts but turning a blind eye to the negatives is disingenuous.
@@Pine2142 I'd have to hunbly disagree with you on the last part, as XC3 has been met with glowing praise from the vocal fan base and critics alike. It's near impoissible to find criticsim of the story and characterization of XC3 from anyone online. Seeing how games are a subjective artform, it's not possible to actually come to a conclusive understanding as a collective on every aspect of a game, and I understand that fully.
I'd write out a thesis on XC3 and it's massive shortcomings if I had the time, but I will agree with you that the game's final act felt disjointed and rushed. I just wish people applied more critical thinking to how the characters and their relationships were equally as rushed as the final chapter, delivering a mediocre and unfulfilled story in the end.
What's more, is how the writers didn't fully utilize the ouroboros as a major character developing tool. They literally shared BODY. MIND. MEMORY AND SOUL. Yet, it ended up just being some "cool" new mechanic to use in battle. So dissapointing
It's so funny seeing your visceral reaction to Rex being married to 3 women XD. It's weird since in alot of Asian and Middle Eastern countries polygamy is completely normal and accepted, while they see Homosexuality as disgusting and wrong, and it's completely the opposite here in the west where polygamy is abhorrent while Homosexuality is normal and sometimes even desirable. It seems Morality is relative.
Back before Colonialism, Homosexuality was common place in Asian Culture (or at least it is in the Southeast)
@@TheOwlet22 you know which specific countries? I'd like to read about that. Wouldn't that have created alot of problems though? Since "Anal sex" whether homosexual or not is one of the main causes of STDs, now we have medicine and condoms but back then how did they deal with such issues? Yeah I need to read more about it.
@@alenezi989a3 I mainly focus on the Philippines in regards to my study of South East Asia, which is one of the countries that lost most of its culture and history under colonial rule, so I'll admit that I can't answer most of your questions. However I do recommend you check out Kirby Araullo here on UA-cam, he's a Filipino historian who posted a video or two in regards to LGBTQ+ in Precolonial Philippines
EDIT: oof UA-cam deleted my earlier comment, I'll try sending the first one I wrote again
@@alenezi989a3 From Brief reads: Philippines, Thai and Indonesia (I was going to send you links to articles but looks like UA-cam's stopping me lol). I think there's more tho since ASEAN is pretty diverse before (and even after) Colonialism
@@TheOwlet22 interesting, I'll look more into that. Thanks
The REAL problem with the game on a mobile platform with a battery and an option to switch to another game - is that there is NO BLOODY AUTO-SAVE feature. I've lost 15 hours of game time, just because the game crashed. With the multiple tutorials (I was a new player and it didn't bother me the same as many others Xeno fans) why not to tell a player (perhaps, even few times) that you have to save the game after every quest???
I love the game and the characters and the mechanics. Not the blade core random system - which is rubbish.
I like XB2 well enough. Found it entertaining. And I really liked XB3, but this video just earned my subscription. Very well put. More please
I laughed hysterically in the end. I think the whole motivation of this video was just envy hahahaha
That took an unexpected and hilarious turn there at the end. Forgot this was meant to be a shitpost for 10 minutes.
Xenoblade 2 feels like it was hurt by being a bit rushed, both in terms of game design and writing. Torna TGC does expand on the backstory of Jin and co. even if it was late addition that should have been there from the start and had its own issues. At least it finally managed to make me care a bit about Lora and Haze 50+ hours after their deaths. Turns out I liked Lora a whole lot more as a protag than Rex.
That said, if you can find the time and motivation to do so you really should give Torna a try!
Lora was a great heroine, whose demise was all the worse given that she survived the climactic battle of the Aegises only to be killed in the ensuing fallout.
I needed that laugh
I 100% agree just to annoy the fans of this game
Its my favorite series but the community can be pathetic a lot of the time
i thought you were cool bro. guess not. Series is great when you play it back to back in order.
gotta say tough, gigachad rex at the end of xenoblade 3 got a good laugh out of me
it was worth it, for the best character in the game by a landslide at least
i'm of course talking about nia
Try astlibra, it's the definition of a hidden gem
Kinda a weak argument for Rex: He has a harem, his opinion is invalid
having said that yes villans were done dirty
Mostly Rex doesn't lose anything permanently or suffer any loss after "the tragic backstory incident" makes his perspective less convincing. If his ending was more bittersweet or even unfortunate and he still said "take the good with the bad" it feel more compelling rather then self-righteous gloating.
@@danielnolan8848
Dude, he’s an orphan. He gets dragged into trouble at every step because people want to use or kill his friends. And on top of that, he was completely unaware his friend wanted to die because all she felt she did to him was cause pain, and had to be told secondhand after she had been killed because he wasn’t strong enough, because he didn’t understand her.
That’s a fucking lot.
@Goro Akechi
Her coming back undercuts that alot, which again is the issue that none of the setbacks for Rex WE AS THE PLAYER experience are lasting, only minor setbacks undone latter on. We don't "live" with the bad, it's just surface level, which would not be a problem if the story was acting as if we do. Monilith wanting to tell an uplifting story to the detriment of the character is one thing, surrounding said character with far more compelling companions and antagonists compounds this, making him an obvious bafoon in 90% of scenarios further undercuts any times he's not as the writter preaching not the character
@@danielnolan8848
I’m willing to meet you halfway, because yes, the rest of the cast is much more compelling than Rex, and Rex can be pretty preachy sometimes.
But Pyra coming back undercutting her death is…eh? I get where you’re coming from, don’t get me wrong, but Rex still had to fight like hell to get her back, including finishing his character arc, and Nia’s, and keeping his promise, even though it’s gonna get him killed and Pyra’s dead. Definitely can be undercutting, but I think it’s alright because Rex seriously worked for it, on an emotional level.
@Goro Akechi
True, I do not think Rex is an absolutely worthless character that could not be salvaged. He's not wrong, just one of the last people in his own universe to talk about living with loss. Monilith done better before and since, a bit of minor retooling and he would probably get there
i see you've really taken a liking to blue lock
That ending LMFAOOOOOO 🤣
I don’t think that we needed to know anything about lorna to feel genuine empathy for jin ngl. He’s a very tragic character.
Didn't know you had a role in God of War Ragnarök. Kudos. I would have liked it better if you actually dubbed the squirrel in GOW:R
Almost all of your points especialy about Jin are just because you have not played the DLC
I both really like this game and agree with everything you said, nice job
X2 also feels very over-designed in its mechanics. I like the combat and the cool tech you can do, but there's just so much shit on-screen at once.
They should have just remade Xenogears and called it a day.
Bro I am dying laughing 🤣
Can't believe you hid your part in God of War Ragnarok from us all this time
Hey Jin is better than N
Sorry, I cannot comply... subbed 😅
This was quite fun, Thank You! The ending made me laugh!
Even though you are kinda a dick for randomly putting in a XC3 spoiler. i still think that was funny so im fine with it.
I put a spoiler warning for it early in the video.
@@ratatoskr6324 you said "a tiny bit of 3". that spoiler is not tiny 💀💀💀
@@ratatoskr6324 i think you just need to specify that the tiny spoiler is from the ending next time. People take spoilers from the endgame very seriously and its easy for them to misunderstand "tiny" as meaning something unimportant from the early game.
Did-did this video end with jealousy lol?!
You should play Torna.
Nothing about Polyarmorie, and nice what the Wolf Lady didnt got sidelined, but yeah he never faced any real lost, besides short term Associates.
And I dont think I hated what they are trying to tell, I doubt I could actually make it out, but I was never refusing to admit this Game had potencial.
But its completly unrealised, the only good in it is the Soundtrack. 4/10, play XC1 instead.
The thing that sends Amalthus down the path of nihilism is the exact same thing that sends Rex on the poth of optimism. He quite literally does face loss but he goes about dealing with it differently than the villains do
Ive only seen your Monster Hunter videos, so I was quite surprised to see this one and wow does it mirror my thoughts almost exactly. Although I’d say that even if Jin and Malos were given more screen-time, choosing to write the protagonist as someone who is understanding of genocide meant that the story of this game was always going to fall flat for me. It just reeks of childlike naïveté; I’m not saying a story can’t revolve around the worldview of an innocent young child (I love Totoro), but when your game involves deep and mature themes like depression, existentialism and genocide, Rex and his commitment to seeing good in even the most vile individuals just robs the story of any weight or seriousness.
A lot of commenters are mentioning that the Torna DLC solves the Jin issue, which it does tbf but only insofar as it fleshes out his motivations. It still isn’t enough for me to sympathise with a genocidal maniac with world-ending ambitions. Fucking nothing is.
Amalthus should have been the only villain in the game; he had a believable enough reason to go full Hitler considering his childhood trauma and religious fanaticism, but he was still treated as the massive POS that he is and whose death wasn’t meant to be some sad tear-jerker.
In an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi (the game’s executive director and writer of every Xeno game since Gears), he mentioned how he was inspired by his childhood when making this game. This is speculation, but I think that was why we ended up with such a young protagonist in Rex and his childish personality. Because he was literally based off an 8 year old. Unfortunately this clashed with Takahashi’s usual Xeno tendencies of telling grand and tragic philosophical operas. Thankfully with Xenoblade 3 they decided to shift away from such a perspective.
Understanding where someone is coming from does not mean they condone their actions, because by that logic XC3 is guilty of it with N as well
@@skylandersfan6954you’re right, I didn’t like how they resolved N’s arc. But they at least covered it up with that weird Jungian “shadow” crap they loved to use in the old Xenogears and Saga games. Plus the fact that it was literally *himself*. I can get behind Noah making up with N, just not the other party members. And tbf, none of them actually chipped in with “what a great soul you were, N” nonsense. They just stay quiet. Like, at least there’s an attempt to dress it up. I’m still not happy.
@@rj_4mp100 Except none of the party members besides Rex, Pythra, Nia and Gramps "made up with him" and even Rex says he doesn't forgive him
@@skylandersfan6954 you just listed half of the main party? And iirc Morag even expresses jealousy at Malos knowing his purpose in life.
I mean when one of the main criticisms Xeno 2 fans have of the third game is that the Moebius villains were “just villains” and didn’t have any “depth” to them, which is just another code word for not sympathetic enough, that’s when you know where their priorities lie. I don’t want to crap all over the second game, so I’ll say that I thought Amalthus was a very, very good villainous character.
@@rj_4mp100 That doesn't mean Morag condones Malos' actions?
Yeah I definitely disagree with this.
This is the greatest video on xenoblade two or 3 I’ve ever seen! How are you the only one mentioning that awful picture at the end of xenoblade 3. This was UA-cam gold. Thank you!
How is it awful?
@@skylandersfan6954
Because I think it was a bad choice to include a picture of Rex and his ladies. To me that’s not fan service, that’s simply ridiculous. How can you take anything in the game seriously after that.
@@fbfb4722 I dont like where it was included but including it is perfectly reasonable
Didn't expect a XC2 video. Let's goo!
So two things, thanks for the spoiler warnings for 3! It is something I have complained about in the past and it's appreciated, also Xeno 2 is one of my favourite JRPGs and I hear 0 lies in this video, unfortunately you won't have me unsubscribe yet.
Nah man. Jin is well written. Malos in my opinion seems like the worst one as far as the writing. Also Malos was the one throwing more hissy fits in general. It's like he was created to be evil by The Architect. He can't help himself and that is literally his core motivation which is extremely lame. Jin, on the other hand is more complex and his motivations are understandable. Sure he's definitely self-centered when it comes to his pain and grief but that's normal for a lot of people and not everyone has the wisdom or the emotional maturity to keep themselves from lashing out or trying to destroy everything they hate.
Oh you've waded in to dangerous waters Rata...Xenoblade fandom is quite "diverse" and nowhere will you match up against the staunchest of shills than when you go for Xenoblade 2.
I'm hoping that people will realize that I'm approaching the topic honestly. And that I understood the point of the game, it just didn't land for reasons covered in the video.
@@ratatoskr6324 Your intentions never seemed dishonest by my measure!
By the way, I know you'll probably hear a lot about how the DLC "fixed" the story, but this isn't really true from a lot of folks' perspective. You certainly get a much bigger helping of Lora/Haze/pre-angst Jin (Malos is basically identical in this off-shoot, with nothing new to learn about him) but it doesn't really bring anything new to light other than contextualize the innocence of Lora and how tragic her death was. I'd say the DLC is more focused on the pre-amble of how Mythra wound up as Pyra locked away in the ship beneath the cloud sea.
Your points about Jin, even to me, as a player who played all the content thoroughly, still ring true, so rest easy knowing your points are no less salient despite not yet having done the expansion.
If you enjoyed 2 at all though, would still recommend for simple enjoyment purposes :)
Furthermore, would love to hear your thoughts on 3 maybe in a future video like this one!
The ideas behind the XC2 villains are better than the execution for sure. In the end I didn't really end up caring too much about any of them, but Malos was definitely the most entertaining and Amalthus' death was the most emotional (though you could say he's made out to be the least sympathetic in the end). That leaves Jin as the least compelling of the three for me (though I haven't replayed the main game after completing the Torna DLC, so maybe I'd feel different now).
Isn’t your channel name the name of that ship in date a live? 🤣
I know I lack most of the context, but that rebutal from Rex was the opposite of compelling writing to me. To me, the point of the apocalyptic nihilism vs optimism story is that both the hero and the antagonist have comparable experiences, but the hero finds the strength/motivation to not succumb to cynicysm and nihilism. It is the kind of story that helps you keep going in the very chaotic and uncertain real word, the line "life's actually pretty alright" is shit fuel. Can't even warm your tea on that shit.
Without the context of what actually happens in the story, i can see why you might think that but there are multiple scenes that flesh out why rex is like that and the story actually does do what you said would be compelling writing. Sadly, the video doesnt really give any insight or any counter arguments to his statements.
Xenoblade 2 is still heralded as having the best story (and villains) out of the 3 games by the majority of xenobalde fans and thats for a reason.
@@HouseGhost1 I mean the antagonists' stories do sound compelling so I can believe it. But I can also see Rex being so agravatingly dumb that I'd just dislike him more with context and that would make me hate his lackluster retort even more, which is what I think might have happened with Ratatoskr. I imagine this scene is many hours into the game and if Rex's characterisation doesn't work for you, this scene also won't work.
@@HouseGhost1 [citation needed]
@@HouseGhost1 wait who said xenoblade 2 story and villain are the best in the xenoblade series xD?
@@PoyoPoyomfs i mean, Xenoblade 3 definitely doesn't have the best villains and story, so it's between 1 and 2.
Oh my god, WHAT? I hadn't seen that picture of Rex yet (and so I don't know the context yet) but man, that makes the character feel so much worse. That's hilariously stupid.
I never really liked the "take the good with the bad" rebuttal in any story because it feels like a cop-out that doesn't engage with the villain's view point at all. It's a bad rebuttal in general, but worse if you were ever close to caring about the villain's reasons at all - and sometimes it might even make you resent the protagonist instead, which I don't think was the point here.
I've never touched any of these games, and if anything, aesthetically, Chronicles X is the one I'd likely pick to try first. That said, it was surprising being reminded how common the (let's call it) villainous weltschmerz trope is and how we seem to be quite ravenous for stories shaped by such molds. I daresay that's a video I'd see Ratatoskr making, but I won't know since I'm unsubscribing once this comment is posted.
Torna DLC is pretty solid but the main game for XC2 is meh.
Nah XC2 is just as good as Torna if not better
@@skylandersfan6954 I would disagree but that’s my opinion. I recently started XC3 and it’s already holding its own much better than XC2 and i’m only about 10 hrs in.
@@mangonutty8937 They're both good, Im guessing you didnt get far into XB2
@@skylandersfan6954 I played the entire main game and torna (80 hrs logged).
@@mangonutty8937 For both?
Jokes on you I can just resub and smack the bell again. I love when youtubers play hard to watch
Ayoooo a Xenoblade Ratatoskr video!! I'm down for more mini reviews
As someone who hasn't yet played fromsoft games or any xenoblade games past 1 and X. Where does X lie in the status of black sheep and if it has a from soft comparison
X may or may not exist as far as the others are concerned
X is completely irrelevant to Xenoblades 1, 2 and 3. It’s also a lot weaker, story wise, though that is just my opinion.
@@danielnolan8848 Are you saying that in terms of the wider xenoblade universe or playerbase. Either way I'm saddened
@@goroakechi6126 I know it's irrelevant that's why as a non fromsoft player what would it be compared to if the xenoblade series has the same standings as the dark souls game.
I just want to overdrive with Sawano music again is that too much to ask
@@greenhillmario yes
Amazing video, very refreshing!